Jami "Sarah Palin is an extraordinary ass" Floyd made her best pitch for an Obama White House gig this morning, charting a course for the president's rehabilitation before the 2012 election and chastising the Republicans's "Bah! Humbug!" tax compromise.
Chris Jansing, anchor of MSNBC's "Jansing & Co.," asked Floyd to assess the argument some Democrats are making that the president should have used his congressional majorities to muscle through a tax package that would have placated liberals. In her response, Floyd took off her analyst hat and strategized as a partisan Democrat.
"We should have unified around our president," insisted Floyd, a former ABC News correspondent. "Woulda, shoulda, coulda. But now we stand where we stand and the question is what do we do going forward? Do we make this deal? Do we strike this deal now? Or do we let it fall apart and then have less to worth with when we come back?"
After not-so-subtly admitting that she has a vested interest in Obama's political rehabilitation, Floyd, a former Clinton adviser, demonstrated that she could just as effortlessly shill for the current administration.
[Video embedded after the page break.]
"What do we do now that we essentially lost those midterms?" wondered Floyd. "What should we do in terms of our communication strategy? Which is where I really think we've fallen down quite frankly. A lot of it has been about not showing the American people what we've achieved."
Apparently, part of that communications strategy involves a bungled attempt to criticize the Republicans's tax compromise: "I understand that progressives are disappointed. I understand that this is a big Bah! Humbug! from the Republican Party at Christmas time."
For Floyd, the Republicans are giving the American people coal in their stockings because, in exchange for preventing a tax increase on all families at the end of the year, the GOP agreed to extend unemployment benefits for 13 months and support a slew of Obama sugar plumbs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Child Tax Credit.
While demonizing the Republicans, Floyd forgot to criticize socialist Senator Bernie Sanders for pledging to derail the tax package. The Vermont independent – like Joe Liebermann, he caucuses with Democrats – has been speaking against the tax compromise from the Senate floor since 10:25 this morning.
A transcript of the segment can be found below:
MSNBC
Jansing & Co.
December 10, 2010
11:07 A.M. EST
CHRIS JANSING: I want to bring in former Clinton domestic policy adviser Jami Floyd. Good to see you Jami.
JAMI FLOYD, former Clinton adviser: Good to be here.
JANSING: You just heard Congressman Jim McDermott, Lloyd Doggett was on earlier this morning. They're not just saying "I don't like this deal." They don't want it to go to the floor. They don't want to accept it the way it is. The conventional wisdom is it's going to go through. How do you see this playing out?
FLOYD: I thought the question that you asked was right on point. What happens if the deal doesn't go through and we come back with a different Congress in place? What is the better deal that they think they're going to get? President Obama's exactly right. This is the best deal he could cut and we do get those jobless benefits. I understand that progressives are disappointed. I understand that this is a big bah! humbug! from the Republican Party at Christmas time. But I do think this was the best deal the White House could strike and we should see it go through.
JANSING: Their argument is they didn't play it right. I mean, we had the cards. They're saying "we, Democrats, had the House. We had the Senate. We have the White House. We should have used that tactical advantage while we had it and we let them have the upper hand."
FLOYD: I think that's probably right and we should have unified around our president. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. But now we stand where we stand and the question is what do we do going forward? Do we make this deal? Do we strike this deal now? Or do we let it fall apart and then have less to worth with when we come back?
JANSING: Let's talk a little bit about your old boss, Bill Clinton. He's going to the White House today. You know, they're saying this was planned for a while. Undoubtedly true. It's not like he was just dropping in. They do consult. They talk to each other on a fairly regular basis, as we've been told. But what do you imagine that conversation is going to be like?
FLOYD: Well I think it is going to be a lot about strategy going forward. I think the campaign for 2012 began at the midterms.
JANSING: Bill Clinton knows what it's like to be in this position.
FLOYD: Absolutely. And there will be talk about whether this is going to be all about triangulation. What do we do now that we essentially lost those midterms? I think there will be a lot of conversation – should there be tax reform? What should we do in terms of our communication strategy? Which is where I really think we've fallen down quite frankly. A lot of it has been about not showing the American people what we've achieved. And so there's going to be a lot of looking ahead, working together, and we all know that presidents consult with former presidents of the same party. So I think it's time to sit down and start working with Bill Clinton. We know that there are a lot of Clintonites, or sometimes we call ourselves Clintonistas, working in the Obama White House already.
JANSING: Yeah Howard Fineman wrote a big article on that – the number of former Clinton administration officials.
FLOYD: And I think they're going to start taking more authority within the Obama White House. And he may talk with Bill Clinton about how better to use those folks.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
