Sunday, February 21, 2010

Ryan: Polite Understatement

Paul's a polite kinda guy.

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan says he was disappointed by the way President Obama, at the January 29 meeting with House Republicans in Baltimore, first praised him and then turned around and attacked him almost immediately after the meeting was over. At the bipartisan session, Obama called Ryan's anti-deficit plan "a serious proposal." And then, Ryan tells the New York Times, "the next day, his budget director starts ripping me and then the day after that the entire Democratic National Committee political machine starts launching demagogic attacks on me and my plan. So when you hear the word 'bipartisanship' come from the president and then you see his political machine get in full-force attack mode, it comes across as very insincere."

When the Times' Deborah Solomon notes that Obama seems "genuinely pained" by the "just-say-no obstructionism" of Republicans, Ryan answers simply: "You know, casting the other side as somehow nefarious and evil and poorly intended is the oldest trick in the book."

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