Today Robert Gibbs said no rational person would oppose this bill.

madfloridian

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Wed Dec-16-09 11:29 PM
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Today Robert Gibbs said no rational person would oppose this bill.

Gibbs is the press secretary, of course. Here is more on this from Fire Dog Lake:

Did Robert Gibbs Says Howard Dean is Irrational For Opposing LieberCare?

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs strongly hit back at former DNC Chairman Howard Dean for criticizing the Senate health care bill, suggesting, at one point, that Dean was being irrational and didn’t understand the contents of the legislation.

“I don’t know what piece of legislation he is reading,” said Gibbs.

“How better do you address those who don’t have insurance… passing a bill that will cover 30 million uninsured or killing a bill?” he added. “I don’t think any rational person would say killing a bill makes any sense at this point.”

Asked if Dean was acting irrationally, Gibbs replied: “I can’t tell what his motives are, to be honest with you.”

Gibbs is not new in his scorn toward Dean. My first thought today was deja vu all over again...we are back in 2003 with the same players in many respects.

In 2004 there was a C-SPAN documentary about a group called Americans for Jobs, Healthcare & Progressive Values (AJHPV).
It was a group made up of Democrats for one purpose. Here are their own words from that C-Span event.

From some notes I took during the long episode.

David Jones is saying --

"Our main objective was taking down Howard Dean... he was so far ahead...
our concern was that maybe we couldn't fulfill our goal, but could take him
down a notch... Gore, Carter all seemed to think he was the winner, so it
looked like a cake walk for Dean - but we decided Xmas would be too over the
top - but when he was taking a dive even before the scream, it seemed too
dangerous to disclose the donors..."

C-Span was on today live with dem pacs and rep pacs on at separate times
describing what they did in the 2004 race for president. DAVID JONES,
remember that name until the day you die, formed a pac called Americans for
Jobs, Heathcare, and Progressive Values. This pac was formed with 22
undisclosed donors and $600000 dollars for the express purpose of taking Gov
Dean down. David Jones used this phrase many times and bragged about what he
did. He had previously worked for Clinton and Gore campaigns. He bragged
about this. This is the first time a pac was used to take another democrat
down in this manner. His own words. This guy is bragging about the bin laden ads.

The spokesperson for that group that existed for one purpose was Robert Gibbs.

Here is more from CBS from December 2003 about the group.

Secretive '527' Group Uses Bin Laden Image To Attack Howard Dean

A Democratic 527 formed to secretly take down a Democratic candidate.

The ad began airing in New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday, before the capture of Saddam Hussein. Two other AJHPV anti-Dean ads have aired in Iowa, both ending with a domestic variation of the Osama warning: "If you thought Howard Dean had a progressive record … check the facts … and think again." Overall, AJHPV has pledged to spend $400,000 on advertising in Iowa.

If the harsh criticism of Dean were not enough to make the ad of interest, a controversy over AJHPV's funding has drawn further attention. AJHPV has refused to disclose its financial backers and the IRS does not require 527s to file until January 31, after the first two make-or-break primaries.

..."AJHPV's new spokesman is former John Kerry press secretary Robert Gibbs, who left the Massachusetts senator's campaign when his boss, Jim Jordan, was fired. The Kerry camp also denies any connection with the 527 group. Both the Gephardt and Kerry campaigns have gone on the air with positive ads this week, leaving the Dean bashing to AJHPV.

Making lemonade out of lemons, the Dean campaign is using the anti-Dean ad to raise money. Dean for America put up a fundraising "bat" on its Web site designed to turn his supporters' ire at the attacks into cold, hard cash. The Web site features a full rundown of the ad and its surrounding controversy, explaining that "Democrats are better than this" and urging supporters to contribute to "show that we're going to keep fighting." So far the ad has brought in $459,541 for Dean.

Everyone denied anything about anything. Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity, and author of the Buying of the President laid out the facts in A Political Mugging in America

On November 7, 2003, a strange new group no one had ever heard of called "Americans for Jobs & Healthcare" was quietly formed and soon thereafter began running a million dollar operation including political ads against then-frontrunner Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. The commercials ripped Dean over his positions or past record on gun rights, trade and Medicare growth. But the most inflammatory ad used the visual image of Osama bin Laden as a way to raise questions about Dean's foreign policy credibility. While the spots ran, Americans for Jobs through its then-spokesman, Robert Gibbs, a former Kerry campaign employee refused to disclose its donors.

The Dean campaign cried foul, but no one, including the news media, could figure out exactly who was behind "Americans for Jobs." The disturbing mystery was partly solved by Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post on February 11, after reviewing public Internal Revenue Service records filed under Section 527 of federal tax law. Unfortunately for voters and the general public, that legal disclosure information was filed January 30, 2004, nine days after the Iowa caucuses in which Massachusetts Senator John Kerry upset former Vermont governor Howard Dean. Those contribution records were updated again with another $337,000 in donations on March 4, 2004, for a total of exactly $1 million that the group raised.

It probably had little to do with the losing, but it had a hell of a lot to do with dirty politics.

I was again today reminded by Gibbs, Rockefeller, Landreiu and others that it is all still going on. The same players are protected and revered, the outsiders are still out.

Here is the ad from 2003.