Life is funny

~ susie

I just got off a White House conference call in which I asked David Axelrod if he ever heard of the term “hippie punching”.

Silence.

“Are you there?”

“Yeah, I heard you. Go on.”

Basically, after Axelrod told us how wonderful we were and how much they needed us to close the enthusiasm gap in this election, I called him on it. Like, yo Dave, here we are, liberal activists who give money and GOTV, and the White House needs to punch us in public so no one thinks they take us seriously?

And then he said, like, your feelings don’t really amount to a hill of beans in this crazy mixed-up world when we’re TRYING TO SAVE THE COUNTRY, and then I said excuse ME, we’re not talking about my feelings here, how am I supposed to motivate my readers when you treat them like the town ho?

Or words to that effect. I do it all for you, my beloved readers.

UPDATE: Why do people think this is literally what I said on the call? Did the Casablanca quote not tip you off, or the Jerry Springer “trash talk” dialog?

Go read Greg Sargent if you want an accurate depiction.

Published by susie

113 thoughts on “Life is funny”

  4. Just read about this at Firedoglake. I want to kiss you on both cheeks, heft you on to my shoulders and parade up and down the streets.

  6. way to raise hell because they are just not getting the picture of what is really happening out here in real america

  7. and then I said excuse ME, we’re not talking about my feelings here, how am I supposed to motivate my readers when you treat them like the town ho?

    I sure would have liked to been a fly on the wall for THAT little gem, if it had been uttered verbatim… 😀

    But, of course, yer dead on ballz accurate. It’s amazing that the administration still thinks it has the backing of the people…

    Michale32086

  9. Oh, I love you, you brazen hussy DFH!

    Wow, ballsy and on point. Plus, when he tried to blow you off you brought him back to what’s important: You’re trying to rev up the proggies’ and libs’ enthusiasm to work for this Corporatist prez. (Well, you didn’t call him a Corporatist.)

    Hhhhmm…I hope that doesn’t mean he and Obama will now work against Net Neutrality….

    Oh, yeah. Obama hasn’t done all that much to protect Net Neutrality.

  11. jawbone,

    Are people allowed to tape the conference calls? Any transcripts?

    Each municipality has their own laws about recording phone calls. Some don’t have any notification laws, some do. Some require verbal and recorded permission of BOTH parties, some allow for permission from one party after the fact…

    It’s always safer to err on the side of caution and don’t record a call without permission from all..

    With politicians, good luck with that!!! 😀

    Michale32086

  13. Hippie Punching? Is that the latest civil rights movement? you’re an idiot. and you’re outburst was idiotic and childish. Outbursts like this are why you get laughed at and dismissed not just by the MSM, but by the American people in general.

    “We’re the girl you’ll take under the bleachers but you won’t be seen with in the light of day,” – Say What? That says more about you than it does about the WH. You make yourself sound easy and cheap and sometimes that’s how the left acts. You throw your panties at anyone that spits the rhetoric you love so much and never take the time to listen to the caveats. Obama had the right rhetoric and now that he has to actual put words to action the end result isn’t always perfect. So what do you bleacher ho’s do? On to the next one. And you do it again and again and again and then do stupid things like you did on the phone call.

    So many things you could have addressed. So many people hurting and you choose to go on a rant about YOUR fee fees. That’s all you fake liberals care about – YOURSELVES. You talk all the time about helping the American people, but you need motivation? Fake. What real activist would say that? what person who really cares would say something so selfish?

  14. Bravo again!

    That’s as much response as anyone else has gotten from out friends in the Whit House.

  17. Susie, I just read about your exchange with Gibbs, in the Washington Post. I am prouder of you now than at any point in the last 6 and a half years of reading your blog! You nailed it with the bleachers metaphor. Wow. Just wow.

  18. you know greg sergent over @ washpost recalls the conversation pretty much verbatim, including your quote about progressives being the girl they make out w/under the bleachers but won’t be seen in public with.

    you go girl!

  23. been working so hard, so long and now so happy to learn I’m not the only one who doesn’t feel that way! emails etc w this to OFA staff go into ether. thank you !

  24. A-HAHAhahahahaha!

    This White House is like an abusive spouse, and the activist Left the abused wife. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

    What gets me is: why did your comments make the news, Susie? Why aren’t your colleagues in on the call saying the same things? Are they afraid of losing “access?”

    You’ll have to keep us posted if they let you in on the next conference call.

  25. Since it’s pretty certain the White House will be monitoring this site for a day or two, let me take this opportunity to say: FUCK YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA!

  26. Look, I get to say these things because I don’t have to worry about keeping my job when I say them. I’m not going to judge what anyone does these days to keep a steady paycheck, and yes, some people depend on having that access.

    Let’s just say that I speak as a surrogate for many, and leave it at that.

  28. “Let’s just say that I speak as a surrogate for many, and leave it at that.”

    I’d say you speak for a majority of politically active Dems.

    Axelrod, Jarrett, and the Man himself, are a bunch of Mayberry Machiavellis who don’t understand why they occupy their position of power. They don’t understand how to bring about politically popular reform in the public interest, when the 111th Congress was our best opportunity to do that in a generation. They are setting back the cause of the left by a decade.

    They deserve far worse than you gave them.

    Save the Democratic Party! Separate the Party from the craven and selfish crew at the top of the White House pyramid!

  29. I would like the Obama Administration to tell me why I should get out of bed on November 2010, or November 2012 for that matter. After 8 years of Bush, Obama has turned out to be more ant-choice and anti-women.

    Report: “Are you going to sign the Freedom of Choice Act?”

    Obama: “I have more important things to do.”

    Ya, so do I Obama. Like voting Republican.

  33. It’s a very thick bubble, but at least now we know Axlerod has *heard* the term “hippy punching”. Thanks for speaking up, Susie!

  34. Susie, great take-down of Axelrod and the bleacher metaphor is so appropriate.

    It’s like the Democratic Party leadership is embarrassed by us liberal progressive Democrats, the Democratic Party base, while the Republicans aren’t embarrassed at all by the Tea Potty radicals, a Tea Potty that’s full of crap, that not only stinks up the Republican Party but also the rest of America.

    For this reason alone, I am definitely voting straight Democratic Party ticket in November, as I’ve done over the past several decades, come Republican hell or global-warming high water. The Republican Tea Potty alternative is just too, too odious to even contemplate.

  35. This reminds me of Matthias Rust landing his little prop plane in Red Square. Bust that bubble!

  36. Susie,

    Thank you so much for that exchange with Axlerod. The WH is quite clueless about the temperature of people in and outside of the activist community. I’ve talked to plenty of people who’ve never read blogs, or watch the shows on MSNBC; they’re just the people who’ve worked for local candidates, door knocked, etc., and they are demoralized by the policy.
    They are trapped in an endless 90’s loop.

  37. If you ever have another opportunity to talk to him (yeah, right) please give him this message from someone who gave up six months of her life to organized 1,500 volunteers during the campaign to make over half a million phone calls to swing states

    “What part of your statements today engendered the campaign mantra of Respect, Empower, Include? How are you respecting my opinion, empowering me to act and including me in the solution?”

    Man, I’d live an answer to that question.

  38. “That’s a pretty thick bubble they live in.”

    Yes, but that’s a mighty big pointy stick you just shoved into it.

    I wonder if anyone will ask Gibbs for the official Obama reaction to this exchange in his press briefing tomorrow.

  39. “And then he said, like, your feelings don’t really amount to a hill of beans in this crazy mixed-up world when we’re TRYING TO SAVE THE COUNTRY…”

    How dense can Axelrod be? He pulled the same BS on Nancy Pelosi months ago when she told him things would be real bad if the WH wasn’t getting its shit together.

  40. Brava. You’re my hero for the day. Thanks for speaking for so many traditional FDR Democrats (non-corporate Dems). The bleachers metaphor was both evocative and powerful. (And pithy.)
    Great work. Thanks again.

  43. I should have also said how much I appreciate your writing on CL.

    You seem to be one of the few voices speaking in support of working people. (the non professional left)

  44. Running up trillion dollar-a-year deficits is ‘saving the country’? What do you think ruins it?

  45. So… other than the Constitution exactly what should be the limiting factor to Federal Government power? If they decide all people with long hair should do 20 hours a week hard labor in the mines, what would stop them… (fill in Billionaire for long hair if it helps you visualize freedom).

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