Former Reporter Jay Carney Recalls ‘Bombast’ During Gingrich Era on Capitol Hill
EmailWhite House press secretary Jay Carney today fondly recalled his days as a journalist covering then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Asked by Fox News Channel’s Ed Henry about Gingrich’s continued suggestion that President Obama is “a classic Saul Alinsky radical,” Carney said, “have I said how much fun I had as a reporter covering Congress from 1996 to 1998? There was a certain bombast to it at the time. A lot of colorful things to cover.”
Carney covered Capitol Hill for TIME Magazine, working his way up to bureau chief, until he left journalism to join the Obama Administration. (Here’s a Carney golden oldie from 1998 called “Newt’s Secret Plan: To Stay Right Where He Is.” )
The author of “Rules for Radicals,” Alinsky, who died in 1972, is considered the father of modern community organizing – the first profession of President Obama.
Alinsky believed in teaching the disenfranchised to confront those in power. “‘The Prince’ was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power,” Alinsky wrote. “‘Rules for Radicals’ is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”
A number of Alinsky protégés hired Mr. Obama to organize African-Americans on Chicago’s South Side, as the Washington Post’s Peter Slevin covered in 2007. In 2009, an Alinsky biographer told NPR of the president’s 2008 race that “the organizers’ manual for the camp Obama training during the campaign was very much based on the teachings of Saul Alinsky and his disciples…. It’s pretty accurate to say we have a community organizer in the White House who really learned a lesson on the streets of Chicago.”
No doubt hyper-aware of how Alinsky’s very liberal views might play with independent and moderate voters, President Obama has not publicly discussed Alinsky. (Though in 1988, for an Illinois Issues volume on Alinksy, Obama wrote an essay titled “Why organize? Problems and promise in the inner city.”) Carney today begged off addressing the subject head on.
“The president’s background as a community organizer is well documented in the president’s own books,” Carney said. “So his experience in that field obviously contributed to who he is today. But his experience is a broad-based one that includes a lot of other areas…in his life, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
-Jake Tapper
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Posted by: Yep I said that | January 23, 2012, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
Just leave it at that, as the media does
Posted by: Lizzie | January 23, 2012, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
Lol -
Jay shouldn’t worry about Newt’s bombast. What he should be worrying about is the bs obama has been spewing for the past 3 years.
One and done.
ABO
Posted by: ceeLeelee | January 23, 2012, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
Why did ABC not report this when Obama was a presidential canidate??? The truth is slowly coming out about what a radical we have for president. This is wild.
Posted by: billy bob | January 23, 2012, 2:56 pm 2:56 pm
what’s the “broad-base” of obama’s experience outside his relationships with people like bill ayers and rev. wright? if you’re going to make these kinds of statements, you sure better be willing to explain them. what we know about obama is that his entire adult life has been involved with an extreme left wing radical agenda. i don’t see anything broad-based at all about it. in fact, he’s basically the man in the ideological plastic bubble.
Posted by: grumpopolis | January 23, 2012, 3:25 pm 3:25 pm
“The president’s background as a community organizer is well documented in the president’s own books,” Carney said. “So his experience in that field obviously contributed to who he is today.
========
No kidding.
When Obama was community organizer, he left behind not one substantial or lasting change for the community he organized. He left Altgeld Gardens poor, crime ridden, and full of asbestos.
When he came back from Harvard, he threw his lot in with Tony Rezko, a man (now a convicted felon) who was a landlord for similarly poor people, and who left these people to live in substandard housing while he collected their rent checks. But he contributed substantially to Obama’s campaigns (and his mortgage situation)
Obama getting people focused on problems, promising he’ll get government to fix it, and then leaving it unfixed does indeed sound like who he is today. So does becoming financially entangled with friends who will benefit his cause while overlooking their shoddy work. It’s just that now Obama does it with taxpayer money.
Posted by: MayBee | January 23, 2012, 3:35 pm 3:35 pm
Meanwhile people seem to be powerfully drawn to my background of high finance, broad base in investment, and pure profit motive. Just wait till I release my tax returns and the working public sees how much guys like me really pay in taxes. They’ll agree more than ever that I will be their voice in Washington.
Posted by: mitt the ripper | January 23, 2012, 3:46 pm 3:46 pm
What is truly amazing is that we have enough idiots in this country to get him elected. That is the scary part.
Posted by: billy bob | January 23, 2012, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
Carney: “But his experience is a broad-based one that includes a lot of other areas…in his life, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
Obama had no experience as a chief executive before becoming president. None, Zip, Nada. When Obama worked briefly in his one stint in the private sector he said he felt like “a spy behind enemy lines.” His disdain for the private sector is legendary.
Posted by: David | January 23, 2012, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
Henry (Fox News) seems to be the ONLY White House reporter who is asking pointed questions. Tapper, you come in second.
Posted by: Tex Geoas | January 23, 2012, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm