“Even if some people say, ‘Well the Republicans should have done this or they should have done that,’ they will hold the president responsible. Now, I don’t even want to have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get it, you’re stuck, and you’re a part of the problem now and you can’t get away,” Lamborn said Friday on the Caplis and Silverman Show on 630 KHOW talk radio.
NASCAR Driver Greg Biffle says he’s “disgusted.” Tony Stewart is “very sorry.”
And both say they resent suggestions they rejected President Obama’s invitation to a tribute to the sport in the White House Rose Garden this afternoon.
Apparently the invitation was extended two weeks ago to 12 drivers who will be in nearby Richmond, Virginia, for a Saturday night race. Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will be honored by the President and will attend.
“There’s a lot of people in this nation that would love to have that opportunity and spend time with the president and just have a couple minutes of his time,” Stewart tells the sports fan website SBNation.com . “It’s a tough schedule that we have.”
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/nascar-drivers-deny-obama-snub/
Disrespected!
When Obama welcomed the NHL’s Boston Bruins to the White House Monday, goalie Tim Thomas, one of the hockey team’s star players, snubbed the presidential invite, staying home in protest of the state of Washington politics.
“I believe the federal government has grown out of control, threatening the rights, liberties, and property of the people,” Thomas said in a statement, adding that his decision not to attend the ceremony “was not about politics or party, as in my opinion both parties are responsible for the situation we are in as a country.”
Thomas’ snub is not the first cold shoulder Obama has gotten from a sports star.
In September, when Obama invited 12 NASCAR drivers to the White House, two declined the invite. Although Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart cited scheduling conflicts, their high-profile hooky did not go unnoticed or un-criticized by their fellow drivers.
“Regardless of political views, when (president of the United States) sends an invite and wants to honor you at the White House, you accept,” driver Jimmie Johnson tweeted, adding a hash tag with the word “respect.”
Later that month former Chicago Bears lineman Dan Hampton also chose not to attend an Oval Office celebration of the Bears’ 1985 Super Bowl win, saying he’s “not a fan of the guy in the White House.” Obama honored the team’s 25-year-old win last September because the Bears’ initial visit with Ronald Reagan in 1986 was canceled after of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
President Barack Obama’s three-day trip won’t be remembered for his talk here on rising college tuition costs. Or for his flogging of clean energy proposals in Nevada and manufacturing tax breaks in Iowa.
No, the enduring image of his tour through five key states this week will be Obama confronting Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer over months-old insults from her book, his dismissive mien facing down her French-manicured fingertip.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/72100.html#ixzz1ksrBuZ32
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This is good stuff! Henry Kissinger said a while back in an interview with Der Spiegel, “Obama is like a chess player.” Heck of a move Mr. Pres.!
President Barack Obama stepped firmly onto Republican turf Friday, announcing that he wants to merge a half-dozen agencies to cut spending and streamline the federal government.
Obama’s plan would merge the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade representative and other independent business agencies into a new, unnamed Cabinet agency.
The president would need congressional approval to consolidate the agencies, and he virtually dared Republicans to vote against it, putting the GOP on the defensive for the second time in a month. The payroll tax cut fight forced Republicans lawmakers to choose whether to support the president or a tax increase. This would force them to support the president or the status quo — a tangled web of regulatory agencies that Republicans have held up as a barrier to job creation.
