by Mark Silva
What do President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain have in common?
Fed up with the dysfunction of Congress, suggests Carl Bernstein, author of A Woman in Charge (and co-pilot of the Washington Post Watergate reporting that brought down President Richard Nixon 35 years ago), a book about Clinton. (Perhaps he could turn his next focus to All the President's Women.)
"Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama understood the futility of being a member of the U.S. Congress,'' Bernstein said on MSNBC's Morning Joe this morning.
"The reason that Barack Obama is showing such masterful - and I think we can use that word, leadership, so far, is that he is the process of solving the problem of the U.S. Congress, the fact that it is a largely dysfunctional institution.... That it is just bedeviled by partisan gridlock, that it runs behind the problems of the United States.''
Obama did well in pulling Clinton from the Senate to serve as chief diplomat, says he - she is known and respected around the world, and will be better positioned to carry out on the foreign front the work that Obama is taking on on the domestic front.
'She didn't want to be a part of that institution anymore,'' Bernstein said.
"John McCain didn't want to be a part of that institution anymore, because they all recognize it doesn't work.''
McCain, for his part, has been telling the talk show hosts that he's happy to be back in the Senate, where he became one of the more vocal critics and opponents of the economic stimulus bill that Obama won with the help of just three Republican senators and no Republicans in the House - that would be part of the gridlock that Bernstein is talking about, perhaps. The Democrats may be positioned to run the place on their own.
Comments
Bernstein praises Obama's "masterful leadership" so far?
What planet does Bernstein live on?
Posted by: Inconvenient Truth | February 16, 2009 12:10 PM
I agree with Inconvenient Truth. He was not a real trailblazer in the Illinois house. He was there not to make a mistake with all the "present" vote. It is way to early to even call him a leader. I am sure he could not do much to stop the majority in congress adding the non-"stimulus" parts to the latest bill.
Posted by: TheDownward Spiral | February 16, 2009 12:41 PM
If the stimulus works it will be to Obama's credit and if it fails it will be the failure of congress.
All 535 are basically useless.
Without term limits and the elimination of the seniority system in appointments we will continue as a clueless nation led by a pack of fools.
Posted by: Bushwacker | February 16, 2009 12:50 PM
"Masterful leadership", as defined by a series of embarrassing cabinet appointments, putting my 3-year old son into a debt because of, at BEST, an ill-advised, no-stimulus bill from which he may never recover, and which serves only to reward his cronies for getting him elected to a job which has never seen a less-deserving office-holder, providing a complete lack of ethics during a time when, like no other, we need clean ethics the likes of which haven't been seen in decades. If that's "masterful leadership", then as "one of the forty eight", I respectfully disagree in the strongest terms possible, and in language I certainly won't use in private.
- One of the Forty-Eight
Posted by: Patrick Smith | February 16, 2009 12:53 PM
Carl Bernstein is obviously a cheerleader for the Obama administration. However, he is correct in suggesting that Congress is "dysfunctional" (albeit for reasons other than those he suggests.) Congress is dysfunctional because it has ceased to be a deliberative body. The TARP bill and the current stimulus bill - which happen to be the two most expensive pieces of legislation this Country has ever seen - are both good examples of how Congress has abandoned deliberation for fear-induced, herd-like stampedes to produce legislation of questionable quality and effectiveness. Obama doesn’t need leadership to get Congress to comply. Git along little doggies.
Posted by: John W. | February 16, 2009 12:57 PM
Your kidding !! What, did this guy just drop onto our planet !!? Go find him a Nixon, he can paint or how about those stunning Bushes, down Texas way !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, America | February 16, 2009 1:02 PM
The Senate is only for people who (1) Do not want to work hard; (2) Like to hear themselves talk to an empty chamber; (3) Can get by for years without doing anything, like Obama, Clinton et al; (4) Enjoy perks like paid travel to resorts anywhere on "fact-finding" missions; (5) Wish to become a millionaire in a few short years on a salary of just $169,300 a year; and (6) Have an extremely high threshhold of boredom.
Posted by: Derrick | February 16, 2009 1:11 PM
The Senate is only for people who (1) Do not want to work hard; (2) Like to hear themselves talk to an empty chamber; (3) Can get by for years without doing anything, like Obama, Clinton et al; (4) Enjoy perks like paid travel to resorts anywhere on "fact-finding" missions; (5) Wish to become a millionaire in a few short years on a salary of just $169,300 a year; and (6) Have an extremely high threshhold of boredom.
Posted by: Derrick | February 16, 2009 1:11 PM
Bernstien is as much of a investigative reporter as Obama is an ethical president.
Posted by: senator dirksen | February 16, 2009 1:23 PM
The better question, Inconvenient Doofus, would be what planet is your ''leader" Michael Steele on.
Posted by: Flo | February 16, 2009 1:36 PM
What a joke! There's no leadership. This idiot is a Obama worshiper and the Chosen One would still be a "leader" if he proposed we have a monarchy.
Posted by: Tim | February 16, 2009 1:45 PM
- One of the Forty-Eight
Posted by: Patrick Smith | February 16, 2009 12:53 PM
Dude, you are not one of the 48, you are one of the 24 (or less % who do not approve of the job Obama is doing). Half of your "compatriots" have come around to the side of those of us who are willing to give Obama a chance after the fiasco of W's 8 failed years in control. You had your chance. You failed. Now shut up and get out of the way or we'll roll right over you and your petulant blathering.
Posted by: FrankK | February 16, 2009 1:55 PM
If Obama didn't like the dysfunctionality of Congress, then why did he let them write his "stimulus" package?
Berstein was relevant 30 years ago.
Posted by: DavidW | February 16, 2009 1:58 PM
The senate definitely needs to have term limits set. Those hacks like McCain and Biden who spend 20-30 years in the same position are so disconnected from the true reality of this country and the states they represent. We need fresh blood and ideas rotated through there instead of the douches that currently just squat on their seats while they grow old and fat from the bribes and kickbacks. Republican or Democrat makes no difference. We don't care what you publicly state that you senators pretend to care for or what your party stands for, we all know you are just in it for the thievery.
Posted by: The Truth | February 16, 2009 2:03 PM
Who is this guy? Obeyme wasn't in Congress long enough to figure out where the bathroom was much less how anything worked. Good grief. Do these people think that if they say it, we believe it?
Posted by: Pam | February 16, 2009 2:15 PM
Bernstien is as much of a investigative reporter as Obama is an ethical president.
Posted by: senator dirksen | February 16, 2009 1:23 PM
Yeah -- a steak dinner as much a good meal as Tiger Woods is a good golfer.
Posted by: Irony Requires Brains | February 16, 2009 3:17 PM
Bernstien is as much of a investigative reporter as Obama is an ethical president.
Posted by: senator dirksen | February 16, 2009 1:23 PM
Yeah -- a steak dinner as much a tasty meal as Tiger Woods is a skilled golfer.
Posted by: Irony Requires Brains | February 16, 2009 3:18 PM
One would think that Bernstein's credentials as an investigative reporter are beyond question. He was half of the team that broke the Watergate story which caused Nixon to resign from the presidency, you know. As for Obama's ethics, or lack of, as you imply, if you've got something on him, tell us. If not, shut up.
Posted by: Quippy | February 16, 2009 4:45 PM
What??? Bernstein is .......(insert name).....It's all misleading bull from the media......Reality is not something we really believe in.
Posted by: bill r. | February 16, 2009 5:41 PM
What FrankK said. Patrick Smith..you're one of the looney 30% of this country who still thinks Dubya was doing a good job (just like Brownie). You wish it was 48%.
You GOPer's had your day in the sun and all you can come up with is tax cuts for the wealthy..bailout for the corporations/banks.
Obama's ethics are not in question here..no matter how much you try to spin it.
Posted by: Trix | February 17, 2009 9:10 AM
How dare those dysfunctional senators, congressmen and women actually STAND UP for what the people who elected them believe in? Why, why, how DARE they! Don't they know they're just supposed to go along with whatever Bernstein's Obamessiah tells them to do and not be all "dysfunctional" and rock the boat?
"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." -Winston Churchill
Posted by: Jeff | February 17, 2009 9:53 AM
I value Obama’s leadership performance and his effort to solve the problem of the US Congress. Med Yones, a leadership expert, states “The leadership team is the most important asset of the company and can be its worst liability” this applies to the government as well. For more information on leadership visit
http://www.iim-edu.org/dysfunctionalleadershipdysfunctionalorganizations/index.htm
Posted by: Tanja Jakubieza | February 24, 2009 12:09 PM