"Take Off The Pajamas, Get Dressed"

An unnamed White House adviser had some choice words for liberal bloggers who've criticized the administration for failing to make progress on gay rights issues, CNBC's John Harwood said yesterday, and some are pretty upset about it.

When asked about "conversations about some things they thought would have been done but haven't," Harwood said that "[t]he White House views this opposition as really part of the Internet left fringe...And for a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn't take this opposition, one adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult."

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It's important to recognize that, as for the "Internet left fringe" part of his comment, Harwood was simply saying what he thinks the White House thinks. That part, as far as I can tell, isn't directly attributable to anyone at the White House, named or unnamed. So if one is to be roiled about this clip, the quote about "pajamas," from the unnamed White House adviser, is probably a more apt provocation.

Made one day after President Obama addressed the Human Rights Campaign, the timing seems bad. The gist is a lack of political pragmatism on the part of gay rights supporters--and, to be sure, the health care debate has sucked the air out of the room when it comes to other parts of the administration's agenda--but, for many, this issue is about justice, not politics. Gay rights leaders have hung in there with the president so far, knowing that they still haven't got what they wanted, but believing this administration is a vast improvement over the last, and it's unclear how much a comment about bloggers will ripple through the whole movement.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/10/-take-off-the-pajamas-get-dressed/28246/