Posted on 02/25/2012 2:08:01 PM PST by Da Bilge Troll
President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals.
Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware and the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, told The Hill that the meeting was “very good” and said many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress.
“There was a sense that none of us should wait, we can’t wait for things to happen in Congress,” Markell said of the meeting. “We’re going to do what we can do [now].”
Obama has positioned himself against Congress as he runs for reelection, arguing lawmakers are failing to solve the country’s problems. “Where Congress won’t act, I will,” he said in October when rolling out a series of executive orders aimed at creating jobs.
Markell said the conversation with Obama did not dwell on Republican opposition to the president’s legislative proposals.
The tone of the meeting was positive, Markell said, and the governors agreed that the Obama administration has been “terrifically responsive” to their state governments.
The Democratic governors discussed the three major job goals from Obama’s State of the Union address: building manufacturing, training workers and increasing American-made energy.
“We had a great conversation very focused, not surprisingly, on jobs,” Markell said, calling jobs the “biggest issue for all of us in the room, no matter where we come from.”
He noted that although they did not discuss the election, the sense in the room was that focusing on jobs is Democrats’ best chance to win in the fall. That is the message the Democratic Party has been sending in full force this season, ranging from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), who slammed the GOP presidential candidates Friday on CNN for failing to mention jobs in the most recent debate and instead talking about “divisive cultural issues.”
Markell said the discussion with Obama steered clear of the transportation bills that are being fought over in Congress, though “it’s certainly something we as governors feel strongly about.”
The meeting, which lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes, took place in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and involved more than a dozen Democratic governors and several members of the Obama administration.
Governors present included Govs. Jerry Brown (Calif.), Jay Nixon (Mo.), O’Malley, Christine Gregoire (Wash.), Bev Perdue (N.C.), Peter Shumlin (Vt.), Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), Deval Patrick (Mass.) and Pat Quinn (Ill.).
The governors are in town for the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association. Markell, who attended the meeting for the first time as vice chairman of the NGA, also talked up the level of bipartisan cooperation between the governors, which he said contrasted with what has “not been a great level of cooperation between members of Congress.”
“We don’t really care where an idea comes from if it’s a good idea,” he said.
Governors from both parties will meet with the president on Monday.
While the reporter didn't seem to know Martin O'Malley's first name or State of Maryland, we know.
Thank you. Everyone seems to be forgetting about this, and several other major fiats Il Douche.
Republican governors need to discuss declaring the democrat party a seditious organization, arresting the leadership and dealing with these scum traitors appropriately.
Democrat run states are bleeding red ink. They need Porkulus II, but it would never pass Congress. They need Obama to bypass Congress and get money to them directly.
Treason bump.
“brilliant ideas like this are the reason why democrat governors are vastly outnumbered by republican governors.”
Good point, JohnBrowdie. In the 2010 election, more than 700 patriots were elected to state legislatures, giving effective control of 26 states to conservatives and patriots.
These patriots and conservatives are setting brushfires all over America that the federal fascist pigs in DC have neither the manpower nor money to stop.
Yep, you can count on Martin O'Malley to help Obama continue the Constitutional crisis.
Maryland "Freak State" PING!
Only today with Democrats and the MSM lapdogs would they openly deliberate circumventing the Constitution.
Yeah, but tho systems rebelled ;)
Yeah, but those systems rebelled ;)
I think they should do it. It might bring the situation to a resolution. AKA a major ass kicking in the elections for the Democrats.
Looks like the blue states are about to get bailed out with red states’ money just in time for the election.
Hugo Chavez does this kind of thing.
He supplies his supporters with cheap reliable electricity, while his opponants get to make up the bill and experience sporadic blackouts.
maybe if there was a sheriff in town, but alas, the dukes and dutchesses of DC will accept the leftovers and keep the kabuki rollin...
You are right, and I've told some of my family and friends the same thing. They're tired of our consent and footdragging. Time for some bodies to be dragged! Time to put the fear of God into those knucklewalking OldThinkers!
Inside every socialist lives a latent totalitarian.
Liberals would have no problem with a dictator...so long as he was one of them.
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