ABC's Tapper Makes White House Look Stupid Again

ABC News/Yidwithlid ^ | 3/16/09 | Yidwithlid

[Shellybenoit]

ABC's Jake Tapper is one of the few White House Press reporters who have not been swigging down the Presidential cool aid. He asks the questions that we want to know. Take the case of the AIG executive bonuses. Yesterday all hell broke loose when the news began to filter out a about the major green given out to AIG executives because of contractual obligations. Since the federal treasury has been forking over our tax dollars to AIG every few weeks since the first bailout, the questions arises, why didn't anyone know about the contractual bonuses before last week? Jake asked that simple question and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, seemed as if he was all tied up in his underwear as he tried to answer (which he never does).

Read the transcript below:

[OregonRancher]

Who was in charge of AIG’s bailout? Who designed it?
That would be the chairman of the NY fed...and who was that?
None other than Tax thief Geithner who is responsible for the
whole mess. So the suit only has to look at the thief to find out whom to blame for all the bonus’s that are under
contract that the thief should have known about.....

[Billthedrill]

LOL! “There are no bonuses in the 30 billion. None! All of it is evil propaganda! No bonuses!”

[mad_as_he$$]

Buy that man a drink!!!!!

[Batman11]

“LOL! “There are no bonuses in the 30 billion. None! All of it is evil propaganda! No bonuses!”

Yeah, those are not bonuses they’re earmarks!

[Nervous Tick]

Did Gibbs have the same frick’n blue striped tie and black suit on as his underwear was knotting? I bet he smells wearing that everyday.

Yep, "Uncle Bob" smells just like his "product"...

[OafOfOffice]

Obama had scheduled a speech Monday to announce new help for recession-pounded small businesses. But first, he said, he had a few words to say about AIG. He lost his voice at one point and ad-libbed, "Excuse me, I'm choked up with anger here." (awwww, me too, because of your actions) It was just a light aside, but he meant the sternness of his remarks to come through. "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama declared. (I can do anything better than them.)

He said he had directed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to "pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayer whole." (Because I have no clue about legal issues.)

Later, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration would modify the terms of a pending $30 billion bailout installment for AIG to at least recoup the $165 million the bonuses represent. That wouldn't rescind the bonuses, just require AIG to account for them differently. ( Ah,I see, so when written down in history books, Tapper's questions will look silly. Tapper Gotcha, cover it up.)

Gibbs said the tough talk from Obama (was just fluff as usual) and other administration officials was aimed in part at pressuring bonus recipients to turn them down. Anyone accepting the money should "think long and hard" about whether keeping it was appropriate "given the performance of the company," he said. (We will destroy you first before the other peasants.)

[randog]

TAPPER: I'm sorry, just -- I don't understand, so maybe I'm just not understanding, but President Obama said in early February, right when he gave his speech on executive compensation, “these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis isn't just bad taste, it's bad strategy, and I will not tolerate it as president. We're going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid.” Since that time, he gave tens of billions of dollars in federal aid to AIG without demanding restraint.

Wow. What's the Chicago equivalent of Arkancide?

[Billthedrill]

"No no! No earmarks! Earmarks are an invention of the evil conservative media! No earmarks here! Who are you going to believe, me or the tanks in the background?"

Dang it, the guy actually does resemble Baghdad Bob.

[John W]

Maybe it would have been helpful if NBC Nightly News-which I watched this evening sorry-had played this exchange in which Obama’s spokesman comes across as essentially defending the bonuses right after they played the indignant Obama clip.

[OafOfOffice]

I just have a real problem with Gibbs. When someone has a position such as Gibbs he should be professional, well spoken, prepared and not offensive. Gibbs is totally offensive and never prepared for any questions not approved beforehand. Being professional must mean wearing the same smelly, sweaty, suit and tie everyday, probably with jeans. He must have missed the dress like you are there, not like you are struggling to get there class.

yeeeuuccchhhhhh!!

Tony Snow, I miss you so much! Total class and could tell you to drop dead and you would like it.

[dixiechick2000]

"I love Jake Tapper - there, I said it. Sure, he’s a liberal. But, at least he does his job. Which is more than can be said for the other 300 White House sycophants errr reporters."

Bump dat!

[OafOfOffice]

no, i’m not exactly sure what a butt-boy bubble is, but i’m glad i’m not in it. sounds smelly.
2:15 PM Mar 3rd from web jaketapper
Jake Tapper

Previously:

Limbaugh declares Ed Henry a “butt boy,” but “Jake Tapper is the one guy that’s outside of the butt boy bubble in the White House press room”

[ALPAPilot]

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don’t know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

[Big_Monkey]

"What's the Chicago equivalent of Arkancide?

Tapper's going to need his own food taster and car starter if he keeps this up. If Jake get's on a plane that you're on, get off it. Just ask Ron Brown.

[OafOfOffice]

We need to twit peeps. We can tweet freeper peep questions to be asked by Tapper.

http://twitter.com/jaketapper

as always, tweet me your Qs for WH briefing, today skeded for 245 ET...
about 6 hours ago from web

Walking into WH event where PrezObama will bash AIG bonuses.... Marine pianist playing “Killing Me Softly”....seriously
about 8 hours ago from TwitterBerry

For argument’s sake let’s posit it’s a non-issue. what goes through prez Obamas head when he puts that flag pin on his lapel each morning?
about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

[joelt]

And when is Tapper going to twist up Gibbs by asking: How much of the $30+ Billion that went to the Euros was given out as bonuses to their execs,,,,, and when did Zero’s teleprompter know about it?

[OafOfOffice]

I see why bammie hammie is so angry now. Lookie like bammer talketh a great line to destroy Bush, but hath no credibility of CHANGE after he succeeds.

I would love to be a fly on the wall as Pelosi and Fwank blame bammer and Summer's for AIG oversight gone wild.

http://washingtonindependent.com/25961/no-new-oversight-in-tarp-round-two

No New Oversight in TARP Round Two

Senate Prepared to Trust Obama on Bailout

1/16/09 8:04 AM

Because only one chamber’s approval was required to release the funding, Senate passage means that President-elect Barack Obama will have access to the money shortly after he takes office next week.

The vote is also indication that Senate Democrats — who have assailed the Bush administration for what they consider its mishandling of the vaguely worded TARP bill — are ready to trust Obama and his economic team to manage the same legislation with better effect.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), who voted against TARP as a House member last year, said he supported the release of the second $350 billion “because I am confident that President-elect Obama will use the money in a way that will stabilize our financial system and strengthen our economy.”

“Perhaps we assumed too much, in terms of common sense, with the first TARP,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Thursday. “This will assume nothing, as we go forward.”

The Senate, however, has no plans to take up the Frank bill — or anything similar. Instead, Democratic leaders in the upper chamber are ready to take Obama’s economic team at its word.

On Tuesday, Obama met with Democrats at the Capitol to address their concerns about releasing the TARP funds. And yesterday, Larry Summers, Obama’s top economic advisor, penned a letter to congressional leaders vowing that “our actions will reflect the act’s original purpose of preventing systematic consequences in the financial and housing markets.” The administration, Summers added, “has no intention of using any funds to implement an industrial policy.”

Still, Bush administration officials had made similar vows in urging Congress to pass TARP last year. And neither Summers’ letters nor Obama’s public statements are binding.

[mojitojoe]

Gibbs is a dumb ass dork. Grossly inept.

[sybilll]

I found the only YouTube with Tapper/Gibbs that was not pulled:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ijzDmHznSs

[Nipplemancer]

here i thought i was the only one who noticed that. the confiscatory/redistributionist language flowing from the white house scares me, and i was broke before the financial crisis!