What the hell did Gibbs mean by the "Professional" Left?

[bvar22]

The most outspoken critics of the White House have been the:
*Working Class Democrats

*Pro-LABOR Democrats,

*Unemployed Democrats,

*Under-Employed Democrats,

*Poor Democrats,

*FDR/LBJ Democrats

*Anti-WAR Democrats,

*Pro-Equal Rights for EVERYONE Democrats

*Pro- Health CARE Democrats

*Lower 98% Democrats.

That is "The Left" I belong to.
Were his comment NOT directed at me?


"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for,
at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."
--- Paul Wellstone

[Blue Owl]

1. Isn't he supposed to be "professional?"

I mean, he does this shit for a living after all.

[Taverner]

2. +10000

[laughingliberal]

3. He is indeed a professional. But he's not Left. nt

[myrna minx]

5. I love that they have no criticism for the tea baggers,

but nothing but spleen draining contempt for the people who raised money and door knocked for them. Brilliant!

[derby378]

10. A professional hit man who targets liberal Democrats who threaten the status quo

The ad slowly moved in on a Time Magazine cover featuring bin Laden, zooming in on a close-up of Osama's eyes, while saying that Howard Dean was an unqualified Democratic candidate because of his lack of military or foreign experience.

Tricia Enright, who was the spokeswoman for Howard Dean at the time, summed the ad up best, saying: "Whoever is behind this should crawl out from underneath their rock and have the courage to say who they are." But Robert Gibbs, who was the spokesman for the group, embraced the slime ad against Dean, and refused to say who had funded the ad. Now sure, you can say that Gibbs was just doing his job. But Gibbs wasn't just aligned with the group, he was in the leadership. The group took seed money from crooked former Senator Robert Torricelli to get off the ground, and then went out and raised over a million to run the ad. Gibbs was one of three people that made that ad happen.

http://mydd.com/2007/2/22/robert-gibbs-the-drag-on-obama

Keep in mind, this was way back in 2004.

Gibbs is in bed with those that tried to kill off the Democratic left. He just didn't want you to know that.

Hails and props to madfloridian for unearthing this inconvenient truth.

[Blue Owl]

12. Aha...

There it is. He's a professional scumbag at heart.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. Professional? Yes. Left? No. Middle? Not by my standards.

Right?

Right.

[nightrain]

4. that adjective is kind of a mystery to me... somehow it seems to be a

distinction between groups, but I'm not sure which ones... who are the "non"/"un"-professional lefties? It sure is a signal to the righties that Obama doesn't consider himself a leftie, given all the bs that he's a "socialist". Is that the purpose?

[raouldukelives]

6. I think he was talking about mass media

People like Maddow and Stewart who might say things like health care reform wasn't care reform it was insurance reform or other malcontents.

[Lorien]

9. That's not the mass media. The mass media is purely corporate

and only throws us a few bones because they are profitable.

[Lorien]

7. Don't forget ENVIRONMENTALIST DEMOCRATS

for some reason those of us fighting to reduce the destruction of the place we call home are usually forgotten. Allowing the fossil fuel industries to police themselves and endorsing whaling didn't win us over.

[Octafish]

8. Please count me as a Democrat from the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party.

And a big, hearty FUCK YOU to those who think it's OK for Democrats to be in any way, shape or form corporatist, Libertarian, elitist or anything else Republican.

[FiveGoodMen]

13. +(a really big number)

:fistbump:

[Barack2theFuture]

21. +1

[PBS Poll-435]

14. Probably rich "Democrats" like Lynn Forester de Rothschild

Or Jane Hamsher.

[gulliver]

15. The people who cynically rile the dense folks.

I don't think Gibb's criticism applies to critics. It's just for the crazies and the "drive other people crazy for money" crowd. A good litmus test is to say "Obama is like Bush". That takes you out of the legitimate critics crowd. Very few if any of the members of the groups on your list would be so dippy.

I think there is probably a penumbra of offense that also lands on folks who use hysterical hyperbole in lieu of cool or constructive criticism. If your central nervous system is in a perpetual uproar out of whack with its inputs, you might be one of the "professional left's" plankton, but you would not necessarily be part of the professional left. Far from it in fact.

There are "hobbyist left" people too I imagine who do the same panic and anger jig as the pros. They just do it for attention or to get their karmic problems off their minds and onto other people. Really anyone who tries to demagogue and turn the inevitable disappointments of realistic policy making into self-defeating division and rebelliousness should take offense to what Gibbs said though. I think that was the intention.

I don't like caviling and anger-baiting when the Republicans do it, and it's no better when a few self-centered liberals do it. I don't care if they took English 101 and Snark 303. They should be ignored.

[Cal33]

16. According to the latest polls from Real Clear Politics, the

job approval rate for Obama is 44.7%
the job disapproval rate is 50.1%

[PBS Poll-435]

17. Since RCP factors in Scott Rasmussen's dartboard polls

Take that shit with a grain of salt.

[gulliver]

18. Obama needs to sit on his butt for 7 minutes after an attack...

...on the country. Then cry on national TV. Then start a war just before an election based on false pretenses.

I understand if he doesn't do that though.

[bvar22]

20. Umm, who says that?

Sounds like you are the one who needs a drug test.

[bvar22]

19. Worse yet, the polls are softer than they appear.

Every public poll in which I participate, I give Obama the HIGHEST marks available,
and yet I am deeply disappointed in his Republican Appeasing administration.
I pray for a Liberal Primary opponent so that FDR Democrats can have a national stage on which to promote FDR/LBJ Democratic values.

I am not sure WHY I still give Obama the highest marks possible in Public Polls, but I am SURE I'm not the only Democrat doing so.

[Poboy]

22. Been doing that for a few months here too. I also feel

compelled in 'public' to take his side, or 'explain' his position to the wingers that surround me. Oh how misinformed are they.
So I bite the bullet, put on a positive front, but under the surface is a quickly eroding core.

I had just stopped donating to the DNC about 6 months ago. Although just a week ago I gave some more to the DNC due to the caller. He confided in me that he TOO was very disappointed in how things are going.
Young guy, idealistic, I got the sense he was in the right place. I gave my reasons for why I wasn't going to donate, told him instead I was now giving only to DFA, ActBlue, MoveOn, etc..
Short of it is, he talked me into giving once more, but I think this latest outrage makes keeping my word automatic. I'm crazy high like that.

[Jackpine Radical]

28. VFor the same reason I do.

The *&^% polls mistranslate all criticism as opposition from the right.

Unhappy with Obama? Wow, you must be another Republican.

[chowder66]

23. This is about "professionals" aka writers, pundits, etc

Not about the base. If the "professional left" aka media, blogs, etc speak for you then yes, you can take it personally or...... you can decide not to take it personally and realize that the "professional left" that are letting their frustrations be known and going as far as equating Obama to Bush are "frustrating" Gibbs and he said so. I am a bit overwhelmed with the response I am seeing on D.U. Surprised?.... not really.... but I was hoping members would actually understand his statements. Could he have said this better? Absolutely!!! I think if he just kept it to the "unity" statement, it would have gone over a little bit better to say the least.

[Poboy]

27. The man said if you want Canadian healthcare, you are crazy.

He repeated all the popular RIGHT WING SLURS against old school democrats, and he MEANT THEM.

[Overseas]

24. Exactly. I'm an amateur lefty. //nt

[G_j]

25. meant as an insult nt

[robertpaulsen]

26. Great question! And which professional said Obama is "like" Bush?

It's not enough to say "these people", Mr. Gibbs. Who specifically? Was it this guy?

[amborin]

29. K&R