What an "Advisor" Is
Glenn Greenwald writes:
Gay issues, the "fringe left" and the liberal veal pen: Thousands of Americans marched in Washington yesterday to demand a fulfillment of Obama's long-stated and oft-repeated commitments on issues of gay equality, in what the NYT calls "the largest demonstration for gay rights here in nearly a decade." That protest was preceded the day before by a virtual consensus 0f gay rights activists expressing extreme disappointment and frustration with Obama's speech to the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday night, where he merely repeated the same pledges he's been making for two years with no added specificity or time commitment.
About those protests -- and Democratic and progressive criticisms of Obama generally -- NBC's John Harwood "reported" the following last night:
Sure but if you look at the polling, Barack Obama is doing well with 90% or more of Democrats so the White House views this opposition as really part of the "internet left fringe" Lester. 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 their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.
In the updates to her post about all of this last night, Pam Spaulding notes with exasperation the excuses and denials flying around everywhere, with all sorts of people expressing doubt that anyone in the Obama White House could possibly be capable of such an ugly sentiment, particularly in light of the President's eloquent, on-the-record commitment to gay equality (other than marriage). As is true for all instances of reckless and petty uses of anonymity like this, it's impossible to know how reflective it is of administration sentiment generally -- was this a senior White House official or some obscure low-level aide?...
Well, almost surely neither. A senior White House official would be called "a senior White House official." An obscure low-level aide would be called "a White House official."
Someone who doesn't actually have a job in the administration, but gets to go into the EEOB once a week or so to whine and otherwise holds court at Caribou Coffee at 17th and Pennsylvania is an "advisor."
In highlighting this quote, Harwood is trying to start a fight--not to inform anybody about anything.
Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?
