Even the 3 Stooges weren't this stupid: 'Wee-weed up:' White House explains it
Posted August 21, 2009 11:55 AM
swamppolitics.com
by Mark Silva
So what did the president mean when he said this week that everyone's getting all "wee-weed up'' in Washington?
"It's a phrase I use,'' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today, hesitating at his press briefing to offer a physical demonstration of the phraseology.
"Let's do this in a way that's family friendly,'' Gibbs said. "I think 'wee-weed up' is when people get all nervous for no particular reason....
"August of 2008, everybody was nervous about whether the entire presidential campaign was slipping out from the hands of the president,'' Gibbs said, turning the page to this August, in which all the president's critics are declaring his health-care initiatives in peril. "This is sort of an August pundit pattern of people getting overly nervous about something that has a long way to go...
"Bedwetting would probably be the more consumer-friendly term for it,'' the press secretary said.
"I hesitate to call August a make it or break it'' month, Gibbs said today of the president's troubles with health-care as he departs today for a week's vacation at Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Cape Cod.
"Much is always made of where things are at a certain point in the process,'' Gibbs said, but the White House isn't focused on "the 24-hour news cycle... I don't know that I would too much into any specific time period like August.''
This specific time period, however, has brought a new low-point in the president's public job approval-ratings - down to 51 percent this week in the Gallup Poll, the Pew Research Center's poll and the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released this week. An ABC/Washington Post poll today shows that fewer than half of Americans surveyed - 45 percent - support the health-care reform as it has been explained to date, with 50 percent opposed.
The focus now, Gibbs says, is getting a bill through the House and Senate.
The president was meeting privately at the White House this morning with Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader who is an expert on health care and was set to serve as Obama's secretary of Health and Human Services until his own personal income tax problems derailed his appointment.
Asked about the importance of bipartisan support for a bill in which divisions between the parties are only growing deeper, Gibbs said:
"The president is going to evaluate ultimately any piece of legislation as to whether it meets his goals and principles for health-care reform... The president's goal is not to print a banner and sign a bill just so somebody can say we've reformed health care.''
The president and his family leave for Camp David today en route to a private estate at Martha's Vineyard, for a vacation that will last through Sunday, Aug. 30. Asked about one critic's complaint about the vacation, Gibbs said: "I don't think the American people begrudge the president taking some time with his family that's well deserved.''
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