My Shining White House Media Moment ... Sort of

One of my oldest, dearest and most successful friends, Peter Nicholas, and I spend a lot of time discussing whoever happens to be President of the United States. For Peter, these chats are part of his job. He covers the White House for the Los Angeles Times. In me he gets unfettered access to the common man, the modestly educated rube from the hinterlands with an occasional -- very occasional -- pearl of insight.

The "Johnson Treament." 

For me the allure is one degree of separation. Peter actually knows Barack Obama. He rides on Air Force One with him sometimes. I have a packet of AF1 M & Ms to prove it. It has occurred to me more than once that perhaps something I say to Peter about foreign or domestic policy could get relayed by him to the President, with profound implications for the nation and the world.

This past Tuesday I came pretty close. I can't recall if I called Peter or Peter called me, but at that moment the divergence in our respective career paths could not have been more starkly rendered. Peter was in D.C. covering the budget crisis. I was skulking around the far corner of a cemetery in DeWitt, N.Y. trying to let my dogs run free without getting a ticket.

We began by talking about Obama's recent speech blaming a GOP cabal for the budget impasse. Peter asked what I thought of the speech. I told him I thought it was clear and irrefutable -- and that it served no purpose. After all, what is anyone here in the hinterlands supposed to do about this mess? I told Peter that Obama was wasting his breath on the wrong audience. We discussed whether the President's need to score rhetorical style points, to win the argument, gets in the way of real results.




Then I got worked up. Like a lot of Americans I like Obama but I'm frustrated by his deliberate, academic style. I asked Peter whatever happened to power politics in the Oval Office.  I asked him why Obama doesn't call in the obstructionist Congressmen one-by-one, show them photos of pending freeway projects or assorted federal pork in their districts and tell them to get on-board with a compromise or else.

It isn't like there's no precedent for roughing up pissant Congressmen. LBJ had it down to such an art form that they gave it a name :"The Johnson Treatment." LBJ used flattery, bullying, threats, even physical intimidation to get what he wanted.

Check out these photos to see what I mean.

http://www.uiowa.edu/commstud/resources/nonverbal/lbj.htm

Also, listen to him bring the hammer down in this legendary exchange with Albert Thomas, a Texas Democrat:

http://whitehousetapes.net/clip/lyndon-johnson-albert-thomas-albert-thomas-gets-johnson-treatment

While I was ranting to Peter I figured it was just that, a rant. But then Peter did a cool thing. Of all the questions he could have asked at that day's White House press briefing, he asked a question that sprang directly from our conversation. Here's the transcript:

 Peter: Thank you, Jay. Beyond asking the public to get involved here and call members of Congress, could the President make more aggressive use of his executive authority? Could he call out Republican members by name? Could he threaten to withhold federal funds?

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: I don't think that's an executive authority, but--

Peter: Well, okay -- or the bully pulpit. Could he pull military bases out of people's districts? I mean, if this is as calamitous as you say, is there more than --

Carney: Peter, all this requires is a willingness to budge off your absolutist position. I mean, we are now in the -- however -- whatever month in the process of an attempt to pass a budget, through different means -- back door, side door, third-floor window ...

The thread gets a little obtuse from there, but the message from the White House is clear: A man named Jay has been hired with your tax dollars to publicly support everything the President says and does using as few specifics as possible.

Still, I'm delighted my morning dog-walking ramblings made it to the Executive Branch of the most powerful nation on Earth. If you see video of Obama  looming over, say Steve King (R) Iowa and saying, "Now you listen you miserable little peckerwood ..." credit me. Unless the exchange results in Obama getting charged with assault. Then it was all Peter's idea.