Meanwhile, the day after his inauguration, Obama issued executive orders bringing more transparency and less secrecy to government. However, the American Civil Liberties Union objected this week when his administration reaffirmed the Bush administration’s legal arguments in a lawsuit by four foreigners who claim they were kidnapped by the CIA, taken overseas and tortured. Both administrations asked the court to shut down the case under a state secrets privilege, on the grounds that even talking about it would endanger national security. Obama’s new attorney general, Eric Holder, said the use of the state secrets privilege in all litigation inherited from the Bush administration would be . . . reviewed.
Perhaps most importantly, Obama’s latest bailout plan for the banking system, presented by Treasury Secretary Geithner on Tuesday, was faulted by investors for its vagueness, and for leaving too many questions to be answered down the road. It sent stocks tumbling and raised doubts about whether the new administration would ever get a grip on the credit crisis.
For a moment during the stimulus bill fiasco, it looked like Obama might be reconsidering the bipartisanship thing. At a retreat for congressional Democrats on Feb. 5, he accused his critics of engaging in “phony arguments and petty politics,” and railed against Republican demands for more tax cuts. “Don’t come to the table with the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped to create this crisis,” he said. Then, on Monday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that drawing more GOP votes for the package was less of a priority than getting the bill passed: “The President is worried less about what the makeup of that vote is than we are about getting something done and getting something to his desk to sign.”
But his approach appears to have played well with the public. A Gallup poll released on Monday, based on surveys in ther first week of February, suggested that 63 per cent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the stimulus package—a few points less than he had at the height of the inaugural lovefest, but still strong. Congressional Republicans, by contrast, had only 31 per cent approval. Team Obama was relieved. “There’s a conventional wisdom to what’s going on in America via Washington, and there’s the reality of what’s happening in America,” said Gibbs.
It didn’t hurt the President that Republicans directed most of their attacks at congressional Democrats, and not him. “I think his desire to have greater Republican support was not possible, as a result of the product that the majority in the House and Senate produced,” said the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, on Monday. But McConnell hoped to have “genuine bipartisanship” on issues going forward and was particularly “open” to working with Obama on reforming entitlements.
And in spite of his earlier outbursts, the President has kept on courting. On Friday, he invited each of the three moderate Republican senators who voted for the stimulus for one-on-one chats. Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, the senior Republican on the Senate judiciary committee that confirms federal judicial appointments, said Obama spent much of the time discussing co-operation on judicial appointments. “That’s what we talked about, having a bipartisan approach,” Specter said. “I think he means it.”
At his first presidential press conference on Monday night, Obama said his overtures “were not designed simply to get some short-term votes. They were designed to try to build up some trust over time. And I think that, as I continue to make these overtures, over time, hopefully that will be reciprocated.” He also said the stimulus fight taught him something about hardball tactics. “I suppose what I could have done is started off with no tax cuts, knowing that I was going to want some,” Obama mused, “and then let them take credit for all of them. And maybe that’s the lesson I learned.” The learning curve has been steep and quick, but, said Obama, “I am the eternal optimist.”
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