White House Reads Palin Tweets...at Least on Tax Cuts Deal

The White House apparently follows Sarah Palin's writings and opinions on Twitter.

Wednesday at a White House briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a question about reaction to the Bush-era tax cut deal. He was asked if it seems off to them that Democrats are mad, but Republicans aren't and if that signals an imbalance to them that it wasn't exactly a compromise.

"Well, I don't know if you guys get Sarah Palin's tweet, but it does not appear she likes this deal. I don't know where [Senator] Jim DeMint is at the current moment but it does not appear that he likes said deal," Gibbs said.

Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, sent out a couple tweets Wednesday afternoon regarding the deal:

--"Obviously Obama is so very, very wrong on the economy & spins GOP tax cut goals;so fiscal conservatives: we expect you to fight for us &...

--Thank you, @JimDeMint - DeMint comes out against tax deal, says GOP must do ‘better than this' - http://t.co/BmjsAh3"

Republicans on Capitol Hill have been fearing all day that Palin will come out and flatly reject the tax deal. Many are also following her tweets. Fox News Senior Senate Producer Trish Turner notes that she's had different discussions with several different leadership aides who have pointed out that Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, and the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation support the deal.

They try to dismiss the Palin consternation, but you can tell many are concerned about her possible out-right opposition....

Interesting use of the term shadow President. In the UK the party out of power runs the shadow govt, just what the govt would be if they were in power. So now there’s a Labor Shadow PM, shadow Def Secy, shadow foreign scy, etc...

It might be an interesting tactic for a future Pres candidate to form his(or her)own shadow cabinet during a campaign. For example, Gov Palin could name a few people who would be in her cabinet and campaign with them. People would know ahead of time what they’d be getting. It could be a bold move if say in the Spring of 2011 she announced who her Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury would be and basically ran sort of a govt-in-waiting. Maybe too bold, but food for thought.

The UK has a lot of good ideas we could borrow.

I’d love to see Obama come to the House for Question Time every week.

Also, when the UK has an election, there is no such thing as alame duck parliament. They dissolve the parliament the day before the election. Once the election is over they seat the new parliament the next day. They should do that here. There’s no need for a lame duck Congress. This Congress should have ended Nov 2. We could have easily seated the new Congress already.

As for Palin’s position on this, the smart move is to not outright oppose it. Obviously if there are reports that various GOP ldrship folks are reaching out that tells you something. I don’t see reports of them reaching out to Romney or Huckabee.

This deal is obviously important to the leadership who I’d guess probably isn’t that fond of her. If she wants to be President, though, she’ll have to work with this leadership. And it will likely still be Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, Kyl et al in 2013. Holding her fire on this could earn her some brownie points. Show that she’s a team player. It will help her in the future.

This isn’t like the 700B TARP deal, the spending is much less. If it she comes out against it and it falls apart for any reason, they will blame her 100%, even if she really wasn’t the reason and it fell apart for other reasons. Her best move is to maybe express some reservations, say we can still get a better deal, urge them to try and improve it in some respects(Demint’s idea of making the benefit extensions a loan comes to mind), maybe call for an immediate 100B in spending cuts to offset the benefits, but in the end take the pragmatic view and support it and revel in the fact of Obama’s humiliation.

She should post on her FB page a list of all the quotes where Obama promised to let them expire, all the times he attacked the Bush tax cuts, etc... Maybe she could say “Looks like those were ‘just words’ from Obama. A nice little jab where she says “Sen McCain and I said throughout the 2008 campaign that the tax cuts needed to be extended, it’s nice to see that Pres Obama finally agrees with us, better late than never” Say how Obama lied to the left throughout the campaign and totally betrayed them and now his “chickens have come home to roost”. Maybe add some lines like “Pres Obama can see the Bush tax cuts from his house” She should dare Olbermann to name Obama the worst person in the world. If I were here I’d title the post “Tax Cuts for All Americans? You Betcha!”

I don’t know why Demint would want to be VP. Lets be honest the VP doesn’t really do anything. For someone like Gov Palin I could understand. She could make history. With McCain’s age there was a chance she could end up President or he’d only serve 1 term and she’d be the nominee in 2012. A number of reasons.

Same with Biden. He was 66. It was his last chance.

Demint could probably get much more done staying in the Senate and leading a resurgent conservative wing. Have a much greater influence.

Besides, he doesn’t really make much sense electorally. He doesn’t really bring any natl security/foreign policy exp which she will need to add. SC is already in the bag. The ticket should probably be balanced meaning she’ll need a more moderate VP, a la Reagan w/Bush41. Petraeus remains very intriguing. Although if Afghanistan doesn’t get any better he may lose some of his luster. Perhaps Condi Rice. I could possibly see either Huckabee, Romney, Rick Perry or Haley Barbour. If only there was someone from CO, NV, PA, MI or WI with good natl security exp.

By being a team player I just meant not going public with strong opposition. This is going to pass. Most of the GOP caucus backs it. I’d guess of the public does as well. Standing with Demint over purity doesn’t really accomplish anything.

There’s a bigger picture here for her. The GOP establishment already doesn’t like her. They don’t like her even more after DE.

We may not like the whole insider thing, but the establishment and beltway folks still have a large say over things, especially nationally. They may not have been able to save Castle in DE or someone like Greyson in KY, but when it comes to the WH, I’d suggest they can still do a lot of damage. they may not be able to win it for someone, but they can make sure that someone won’t win it. The absolute last thing she needs is for this to fall apart and the natl GOP and their business base who are now ecstatic that they’re keeping their tax rates(esp Cap Gains) to put all the blame on her and basically end any chance she has in 2012.

I still don’t even know if she’s opposed to it. That tweet about Demint isn’t really conclusive. Saying we can do better doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the deal. If someone offers me $100000 for a $10000 car I could theoretically do better, but it doesn’t mean I won’t take the deal in the end. Maybe she’s bluffing them. Earning pts by having them come to her and play nice in exchnage for staying quiet...some strategery as W would say.

My point was that politically I don’t see a benefit in her actively and publically opposing this and trying to scuttle it. The DC GOP clearly thinks she may be able to do or they wouldn’t reach out. So I just meant that politically it’s probably best for her not to make waves on this issue.

To me this isn’t a red line issue. It’s not like amnesty or something worth going to the mat for. There are certain votes/issues that are. They got the full tax cut extension and an extra cut in the payroll tax and a 100% R and D deduction all for benefits that they were always going to fold on anyway.

Now, if she jumps on board Demint’s call to make the benefits loans of some sort that’d be ok. But I don’t see the reason to try and scuttle this.

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