There was some intense flattering of intellectual, accomplished Obama acolytes elected to Congress in the lead National section story of Monday’s New York Times by Catie Edmondson and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Obama Alumni Add Heft to the House’s Freshman Class – Seasoned Policymakers, Well Versed in the Ways Of Washington, Heed the Call to Service.”
In case the headline wasn’t fawning enough, Edmondson and Stolberg wasted no time in buttering up the Trump-deranged Obama-ites:
Their previous jobs have taken them to the Oval Office, the Situation Room and the Senate floor. One met with a Saudi king and plotted strategy to fight the Islamic State. Another cracked down on human rights abuses in North Korea. Their Rolodexes are flush with former cabinet members and current Pentagon officials who are happy to take their calls.
Nearly a dozen members of the House’s incoming class are far from being gawky freshmen, stumbling wide-eyed through the strange corridors of Capitol Hill, but are instead experienced policymakers who have worked in previous presidential administrations -- seven of them for former President Barack Obama. Their return to Washington is, in part, a way to undo what they see as the unspooling of the values and legacy of the nation’s 44th president.
“We have just won a very fragile foothold in one institution in Washington at a time when all the institutions and norms are under attack,” said Tom Malinowski, who served Mr. Obama as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. “This election is not about changing the country. It’s about saving the country.”
....
The group brings not only experience, “but a philosophy of government,” said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s former senior adviser, adding: “They’re progressive but they’re pragmatic. They’re results-oriented. They measure success more by what they do than whether they can score a win for the blue team.”
House Democrats have promised real progress on an agenda that includes lowering prescription drug prices, expanding health insurance coverage and increasing infrastructure investment, as well as investigating President Trump. And these freshmen -- who include a cabinet secretary to President Bill Clinton and former key policy players at the White House and Pentagon -- provide significant heft.
“This is a group that has really seen it all,” said Eric Lesser, a former Obama White House aide who is now a state senator in Massachusetts. “They’re just not going to be intimidated.”
As for newly minted congressmen from the previous George W. Bush administration, that got a total of two paragraphs in the 27-graf story. A new Republican was acknowledged...in paragraph 15. Even Donna Shalala of the older Clinton administration got a photo and higher story placement than any Republican:
On the other side of the aisle, Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida, is a former Green Beret officer who served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s counterterrorism adviser and as the Pentagon’s director for Afghanistan policy.
In significant ways, the Washington that the Obama alumni are returning to is a different place, ruled by people who rose to power by explicitly repudiating Mr. Obama.
In many cases, that compelled them to run. Ms. Underwood, a nurse and former Obama health adviser, was spurred on by Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, backed by the incumbent she ultimately defeated. “I got mad,” she said.
The reporters treated Obama as a renowned historical figure:
Many who ran viewed their campaigns as an answer to the call to action that Mr. Obama issued in his farewell address delivered in Chicago, where he implored his supporters to take up the mantle of his legacy.
