The Obama Administration stimulus package will "either be passed in this lame-duck session, or it will be the first thing I do as President, after January 20th."
That's what Barack Obama told the White House Press Corps in his first ever press conference as President-Elect this afternoon. And, with those words, he was talking to the Lame Duck Congress and the "Pin-Feathers-Flying-While-The-Carcass-Crashes-Into-The-Jaws-of-Barack's-Hunting-Dog" (not to be confused with Malia's new puppy) Republican Leadership in the House and Senate this afternoon, just as they began quaking in their, now piss-filled, boots.
Obama is going to get what he wants, now, or later, he was telling them; . . . and then he set Rahm Emmanuel on them. That's cold.
That's cold, but that's how Barack Obama put his economic package on the table in this afternoon's Press Conference -- his first as President-Elect -- and the waning Rethug Senators that have been throwing their Filibuster Minority weight around for the past two years were listening very carefully, I think.
That's the threat of a determined man that knows what he wants, first, and knows how to say, "If you don't play ball on your field, now, when the Nation really needs you to step up, you're gonna come onto my field in a couple of months, and then -- take yer chances."
I've contributed to the hysterical "doubts" engendered by Barack's choice of Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff, this afternoon, and wondered if my Main Man had the steel to stand up for progressive policies in a trying economic situation; and I was beginning to wonder if our President-Elect had convictions of the kind that could/would provide the "courage of his convictions" in a morally equivocal, wartime atmosphere.
Now I hear him placing his bet on getting a "Stimulus Package" with two Aces and two Queens up, waiting for that last face-down card in Seven Card Stud, asking Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, "What's your bet? You want to cross me now and tie up my Stimulus Package between here and Christmas? Or, do you want to wait until after January 20th, when I own this casino? I want a deal, now, while you have something to say about it. ...Or, I can wait... ."
"What's it going to be?"
Yeah, that's cold.
But, as Barack gets his staff together and can insulate himself from the tough stuff -- put the velvet around the brass knuckles -- I think that Barack found his Life Partner in the Attack Dog, Rahm Emmanuel.
What do you think?