Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20130219 : vimarsana.com

MSNBCW Morning Joe February 19, 2013

At the top of the show we asked you why are you awake . Producer john tower has the answers, jt . More on the clothing line, ugg boots, made of sheeps skin, not cool. John, in illinois, my wife and i are taking care of our sons triplets. Just park morning and theyll be asleep in no time. Tuned in hoping to see bill karins hosting. Frank thanks so much. Apparently were seeing other people. I like that. Im very busy. Clearly, we appreciate it. Our friend in illinois, appreciate that kind email. Morning joe begins right now. Our president , barack obama, took day or two off to go play golf in florida. I dont care, fine, go play golf, i dont care. Played with a guy named tiger woods. This is our president playing golf this weekend. What do you think . I thought it was funny. Good morning, everyone. It is tuesday, february 19th. Welcome to morning joe. With us on set, we have msnbc and Time Magazine senior political analyst, Mark Halperin. Hey, Mark Halperin, how you doing . National Affairs Editor for new York Magazine and msnbc political analyst, John Heilemann. In nashville, we have look at that Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author, jon meach meacham. Its dark down there. It is dark. Shall we get right to the news . Lets do it. Theres a piece on rattner. Sorkin, andrew sorkin. Like aenaen an insider newsletter. None of us are quoted. Im so tired of being an outsider, raging against the news. Can we do news . Yes, we can. Msnbc news morning joe. I ghosted this, man. Lets move in. President obama will be joined by First Responders at the white house this morning to deliver remarks on billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts set to kick in next friday. According to Administration Officials, the president will challenge republicans to make a quote simple choice between protecting working americans or protecting tax loopholes. But the very public display rather than personal outreach is the type of approach republicans say is hampering opportunities for compromise on capitol hill. A new article from politico today says a number of top gop srpts who could help pass the president s agenda are surprised they still havent heard from him. One example is senator mark kirk, although the Illinois Republican is a leading voice for new Gun Legislation following the newtown massacre, he and the president have never spoke. About it. One senate aide says the president s repeated calls for gun control during the speech didnt make it any easier for republicans like senator tom coburn, who are interested in fi finding common ground. On fiscal issues, senator rob portman of ohio says hes open to working with democrats but says his interaction with the administration is limited to secretary treasury nominee, jack lew. Senator marco rubio, whos been working on Immigration Reform was clearly frustrated when white house legislation on the issue was leaked before congress had its own version ready. Republicans have never done that, by the way. A white house spokeswoman told politico, the entire Obama Administration is in regular contact with members of congress and their staffs an the president has been very clear he is happy to work with any who wants to build the middle class. What do you think . I think some of it is fair and some of it is just piling on and the president could too a lot of goodbye walking over to capitol hill and saying, okay, lets go. He doesnt do that. Why doesnt he do that at this point . They reach out, i think, more than the narrative says. Theyve invited people, theyve been insulted, theyve been lied to and i think there is a lack of trust and the question is how to rebuild that. Again, we say it all the time but democrats complain as much as republicans. I have a democrat ive been talking to an awful lot behind the scenes, along with republicans on some of this Gun Legislation, John Heilemann says hes been in washington a while and hes never gotten a phone call from the president , whether its on Gun Legislation or whether its on a lot of other things hes been working with. You would think mark kirk, tom coburn, these republicans that are really out there on this piece of legislation, which is just vital for gun safety would be getting calls but he doesnt do that. Hes not your usual president , is he . He contestant doesnt do it. Not done it for the last four years and not going to change. There are times being able to levitate above the earth would be a useful skill. We have gravity. That gravity wont change. The president wont suddenly become bill clinton the next four years. Wasnt the last four years and wont be the next four years. Either things will get done through more staff contact and cabinet secretaries and outreach and they wont get done and he wont change and become a different person. Were not asking him to call bill clinton. We have legislation in the balance. Weve been talking about it this for four years. Its not going to change, not in his character. He doesnt like to do it, wont start doing it. After the president got elected again, made the joke my daughters dont really want to see me that much any more so i will have more time to call. Theres still espn, theres still the duce. Exactly. Im flummoxed, i really am, why he cant pick up the phone, especially republicans on Gun Legislation, sticking their necks out and crossing the nra. Doesnt look like he will change. The legislative theory of the case is maybe joe biden and jack mcdonagh, will produce overwh m overwhelming majorities in the senate for these projects and the pressure will be on the house for the house to pass tax cuts and they dont think they need the president to get those compromises either through regular order in the committees or big votes on the floor. Lets go to Pulitzer Prize winning historian, jon meacham. Can you i just cant think of a parallel. Im sure Calvin Coolidge was remote. I really cant think of a parallel of a property obstinate of refusal to talk to republicans or democrats on the hill to move legislation along. The great coolidge story that this lady said, mr. President , i have a bet i can get you to say three words and he said, you lose. The coolidge humor is always good to start with. Thats good. Good morning nashville at seven after the hour. There were two words. Just one short. George will wrote another coolidge joke, a little better. Thats a good one. Coolidge and his wife, jon, since you opened the door, i will plow through it. Coolidge and his wife, while they were president , were tour a chicken plant. As one does. As one does and the tour guide told mrs. Coolidge that chickens copy late as much as the rooster. The rooster 24 times a day. And we got the word copy lated in. All day long. Mrs. Coolidge said, could you tell that to the president. The tour guide told that to the president and the president said, do they do that all with one chicken . The tour guide said no, 24 different chickens. He said, could you please tell that to mrs. Coolidge. Thats funny. I see your coolidge joke and i raise you one. Thank you, george will, put that in his column this weekend. Your coolidge joke is better. The analogy comes to mind he had two democratic houses is president carter, who was not the most popular guy in town, tip oneill used to express frustration about, i want to help this guy but he wont let me help him. I think theres that odd strain in american politics of introverts going into an extraverted business. Its nixon and i think president obama. I think carter is a good example of that. I think John Heilemann is exactly right. It would be nice to levitate and were not going to. It wont happen. It has to be on the margins. There are moderate republicans who want to help him and some red state democrats that want to help. Its selfdefeating but i dont think it will change. Lets go to jim van dehei. Right now, its not just Senate Democrats and republicans expressing frustration, you have the press up in arms and other politico stories yesterday up in arms feel like theyre being shut out. A lot of them. We had four or five in the piece that went on the record with very critical comments on the white house. Theyre saying it is different this time. The Obama White House is taking this predictive set of tools for media manipulation whether controlling where youre going or who youre talking to or limiting access the president has and with his staff and then putting it on steroids, using social media and taking their own photos and what gets released to the mass. The combination of this has made this white house much more controlling of his image than even george bush, who was accused of freezing out the press. For republicans complaining president obama is not working with them. How much of this goes back to the early days of his presidency where he feels he did reach out on stimulus and health care and didnt get anything back and said, these people arent going to work with me, forget it. Did he do into off feice thinki these people arent going work with me . I think a little bit of both. This isnt the most gregarious president , doesnt like to kick it around with senators and talk about policy. And he thinks its not worth his energy. Whats different here is you put the house and senate in different categories. It is almost impossible to work with house republicans. I dont think theres a deal to be had on much issues with them. You think about the senate and rubio on immigration or portman on budget issues or kirk even on gun issues, there are republicans who want to get things done in the senate i do think if the president either did build now or had built a relationship with, it would make it a lot easier for him to get something out of the senate that would isolate house republicans. Strategically, it would be in his interest to have some of those relationships. They dont exist and theres a level of its awkward now because we havent talked four or five years. Why would we start now . You get to moments like this, makes it harder to get deals he wants to get done particularly on guns and immigration. Whats so fascinating about the president. I know you spent oneonone time with him, as have we. Hes a very likable guy, unlike, lets say coolidge or nixon or carter, who were not intere interested who at times socially awkward. This president is a very likable charming guy. It leads you to wonder. Its not that he couldnt use his personality and his likability and his skills because he has such a winning personality oneonone, its just that he seems to refuse to. Thats what makes it so fascinating because most president s will use every weapon at their disposal. But he is not using, i think, one of his one of his more effective weapons politically. I think thats right. I will say, when i spent time with Calvin Coolidge, i thought there was an unusual kind of gei geistlike charm. Unusual geist like charm. Very geistlike. I was just talking to a very successful southern politician over the weekend about this issue. This politician made the point that he is not been around someone except the president who so clearly would have preferred to be respected than to be liked, which i thought was a really astute comment. I think that when you put that frame around it, there is something that tells you that begins to explain the behavior. He believes in his ideas, understandably. He now has the wind of a reelection and he feels vindicated and he does feel, to go back to what were saying a second ago, that he did reach out, it wasnt very effective. Some people wouldnt return his phone calls. So why put himself in that position again. This idea he would prefer to be respected than to be liked is an insight worth thinking about. Mika, one of his very Close Friends and people that worked with him some time expressed frustration that he was more interested in being right than doing the deal. Unlike most politicians go into it this is my world view and they have ha different world view, lets try to meet somewhere in the middle the frustration over the first four years is hes obsessed with convincing somebody else hes righ right and not as obsessed getting the deal. My point of view some of the things hes arguing are are so basic having said that, youre right, the deal gets done by giving a little and getting a little. Nobody being entirely happy but getting something done. That hasnt happened and you do have to look to the white house and the president as to why thats not happened. It seems to me that both sides, if they want people to stop mocking washington and thinking washington cant get anything done and losing respect in whats going on in washington, they all need to press the reset button and meet. This comes with the background of guns, obviously something thats in the forefront certainly of my mind but also sequestration, where you have this train wreck coming. The president went off golfing and republicans scattered in the breeze and went off on vacation. We have some Vital Services that are going to be slashed with a meat ax instead of having a ration rational sane approach to cutting. I actually think its a little bit different where you have this point he wants to convince people hes right. Its not quite that. That would have involved sitting down with people and trying to argue with them and try to get them to see your point of view. He seems to have an attitude, people should do things on the merits and figure out what the right course is and he does things in his mind, he figures out what he thinks the merits ofs the case is and makes a decision, not because somebody strong armed him and came to this conclusion in a logical fashion. He seem as to think people will get to the same place he does and see the right course of action and come together on the merits. Kind of on the merits of the case that will be selfevident. Theres an intellectual purity to it thats not like most politicians. Actually, thats what this person was saying, more fi philosopher king. He thinks hes a philosopher. Seriously, so unwed from the realities of washington d. C. Which again there are things to respect about this unless you want a properly functioning washington. Tell me about the rattles of washington d. C. Where a republican leader doesnt go to state dinners when hes invited, where a republican leader maybe goes to one but doesnt shake the president s hand. Tell me about those realities and tell me how hes supposed to function in that reality. That has happened, few. Not just this guy is not calling any, he has been treated with great disrespect and even rudeness on the other side. George w. Bush was insulted regularly by ted kennedy and george w. Bush continued a relationship with ted kennedy. We impeached bill clinton and bill clinton continued to reach out to us. You dont think theres a new level of low here . No, absolutely not. Keep hearing that and so sick of hearing that from people not around washington in 1993 and 1994 and 1995 and 1996, i have yet to sit here, maybe you have, Mark Halperin. Fair. You were around, did you know of major conservative leaders that put out videotapes suggesting that barack obama was a murderer. People forget the level of hatred that went mainstream when bill clinton was president. I could come up with a lot of great examples when george w. Bush was president. Lets just stay with the democratic case right now. The crap that was put out about bill and Hillary Clinton from 1993 to 1996, 97, 98, i think makes what this president has had to endure, which has been ugly, like what george w. Bush had to endure was ugly, look almost like child play. This collective amnesia about the clinton wars is absolutely staggering. People have no memory at all, this is the first time a president has been treated badly. No, we treated bill clinton worse. Impeachment trumps Everything Else. Were in a different media environment and things are generally worse. Bill clinton fought through that. I dont mean to slight the other senators. Two people in the political story, rob portman and alexander, two guys that would work well. Theyre not people who d disrespected the president , that i know of. I think i think theres an opportunity on every issue the president cares about to work with those two guys and others and corker and others, senator corker and others, in a way that he didnt do in the first term. But it is going to require having the trust and personal relationships that dont exist. It is true, as jim said, its a little awkward to start them now but it is in the beginning of a second term. If those guys got calls from the president , i dont think theyd react badly to it, i think quite the opposite. Sequestration is a really good example here. The president today is going to go out and once again say i want a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to replace sequestration. He knows looking at this congress there hes zero percent chance republicans will agree to that. You could make the argument your energy would be better spent getting on the phone with those senators who want to replace sequestration with something that can get through congress but that doesnt happen and doesnt happen for all the reasons you just talked about. The president doesnt think republicans are on the level and doesnt think they will engage in a serious negotiations so he blows them off. Republicans feel ive been blown off four years so whatever, i wont try to get into talks about sequestration so what do we get . You will get sequestration on things that should be undone. Theres a machiavellian reason to call republicans. Set them up. Be the most reasonable guy in washington. Show up, prepare. Be mournful. I want to make this work. Who was good at that . For the american people. Why in the world wont they just meet me halfway . Bill clinton. Sounds like someone else. President clinton. It makes me sad. It works dar sworks it hurts. It hurts. I just want to be reasonable here. And i want to ask the historian about the facts of president obama and put them in a different context. We know going back to the times you study, ancient history, its uglier than now but what about more recent history and people who say this has been more difficult for president obama than any president previous. Mark makes the right point. The media environment has changed at least the

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