VIDEO: Robert Fibbs, David Axelturf compare longtime Senator John McCain to a child

ABC’s Jonathan Blakely reports:

When asked about the prospect of Sen. John McCain, R-Az, refusing to cooperate on future legislation because of his disapproval with health care reform recently being signed into law, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stopped just short of comparing McCain – one of the oldest members in the U.S. Senate – to a child.

β€œThe notion that you don’t get what you want, [so] you’re not going to cooperate on anything else is not a whole lot different than I might hear from a 6-year-old,” he said during a White House press briefing today. β€œIt doesn’t work well for my six-year-old…I doubt it works well in the United States Senate.”

Here’s the video and transcript, via Mediaite:

Robert Gibbs: In terms of bipartisanship I would say that, as Karen mentioned this earlier, Senator Corker said there are Republicans that will support financial. reform

Helen Thomas: McCain says he’s going to oppose everything.

Gibbs: I find it curious that not getting your way on one thing means you’ve decided to take your toys and go home. I dont think β€” doesnt work well for my 6 year-old, I doubt it works well for the US Senate because we have issues that are important for his constituents and all for America. Look, again when it comes to financial reform people are going to have an opportunity to weigh in on behalf of the banks or on behalf of the consumers and I’ll let their vote on that dictate which side of that ledger they feel most comfortable on,

Chip Reid: Are you comparing John McCain to a six year-old?

Gibbs: I’m saying that I think the notion that if you don’t get what you want you’re not going to cooperate on anything else is not a whole lot different than I might you hear from a six year-old.

Jake Tapper: I think the argument is not that its the reconciliation process, its that the republicans have said, Lindsey Graham included as well, they’re saying that spoils the bipartisan atmosphere. It’s not, β€˜not getting what you want.’

Gibbs: When reconciliation happened in 2001 with the Bush tax cuts I didn’t get the sense that it spoiled the ability for Congress to continue working together. I don’t see why that would happen now, unless people decided they were going to take their toys and go home.

Um, if I recall correctly, on the issue of financial reform, wasn’t it the Democrats who were “taking their toys and going home” in spite of the Bush administration’s effort to implement some type of substantial reform in order to prevent financial meltdowns like the one that happened in 2008? Why yes, I believe they did. Did they pay the political price for it? Hell no they didn’t.

Continuing on from the Blakely piece:

On Monday, McCain appeared on a local Arizona radio station, where he boldly stated that β€œthere will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” from Republicans as a result of how Democrats β€œpoisoned the well,” by passing reform with no support from the other side of the aisle and using reconciliation rules – requiring only 51 votes, instead of the traditional 60 – to pass the β€œfixes” to the Senate bill.

This prompted White House senior adviser David Axelrod to also compare him to a child, in an interview with ABC News’ Jake Tapper, by joking that McCain’s stubbornness is “okay on the sandlot but [not] when you’re trying to govern a country.”

Oh, you mean like the “stubbornness” of an American President who made it clear he was hell-bent on passing some version of healthcare “reform” regardless of whether or not any Republicans in the House or Senate – including moderates – supported it, this in spite of his repeated pledges to “work in a bipartisan effort” on issues like tort reform, which never happened?

You know, you’d think people like Axelturf and Fibbs would know the difference between principled stands and outright petulance, considering Fibbs’ juvenile mocking of Sarah Palin during an official WH presser in which the President himself called for “bipartisanship” and an end to the “game-playing,” and considering President Obama’s Chief of Staff once sent a dead fish to a pollster, and on another occasion stabbed pictures of political enemies – Democrat and Republican alike – shortly after Bubba was elected President:

The best Rahm Emanuel story is not the one about the decomposing two-and-a-half-foot fish he sent to a pollster who displeased him. It is not about the time – the many times – that he hung up on political contributors in a Chicago mayor’s race, saying he was embarrassed to accept their $5,000 checks because they were $25,000 kind of guys. No, the definitive Rahm Emanuel story takes place in Little Rock, Ark., in the heady days after Bill Clinton was first elected President.

It was there that Emanuel, then Clinton’s chief fund-raiser, repaired with George Stephanopoulos, Mandy Grunwald and other aides to Doe’s, the campaign hangout. Revenge was heavy in the air as the group discussed the enemies – Democrats, Republicans, members of the press – who wronged them during the 1992 campaign. Clifford Jackson, the ex-friend of the President and peddler of the Clinton draft-dodging stories, was high on the list. So was William Donald Schaefer, then the Governor of Maryland and a Democrat who endorsed George Bush. Nathan Landow, the fund-raiser who backed the candidacy of Paul Tsongas, made it, too.

Suddenly Emanuel grabbed his steak knife and, as those who were there remember it, shouted out the name of another enemy, lifted the knife, then brought it down with full force into the table.

”Dead!” he screamed.

The group immediately joined in the cathartic release: ”Nat Landow! Dead! Cliff Jackson! Dead! Bill Schaefer! Dead!”

“Sandbox”? “Toys”? “Six-year-old”? These clowns have cornered the market on immaturity (not to mention arrogance) in government. And yet they have have the nerve to insult a veteran member of Congress who has worked more with the other side of the aisle (to the eternal irritation of many on the right) in the last 30 years than Rahmbo ever did while serving in the House, and most certainly more than Barack Obama ever did during his time as a state Senator and Illinois and during his brief stint as a junior US Senator?

Slugs. How dare they?

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