Franken, Dems Attack Obama Leadership (what leadership?)

Politico
reports that an angry confrontation ensued when David Axelrod met with
Senate Democrats in private this week. While Obama’s meeting with
Congressional Democrats was so managed as to be boring, Axelrod took the brunt
of anger from the caucus, especially Al Franken, not exactly known for his
sunny disposition. However, Franken was not alone in complaining about the
lack of leadership from the White House:

Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod
this
week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate
Democrats.

Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken
criticized
Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or
direction on
health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to
enact.

The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the
meeting,
which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session
with Senate
Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the
Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room.

“There was a lot
of frustration in there,” said a Democratic senator
who declined to be
identified.“People were hot,” another Democratic senator
said.

The only surprise is that it’s taken this long for Democrats to
acknowledge — in private — what everyone else has already deduced in broad
daylight. Barack Obama doesn’t want to lead or govern as much as he wants
to campaign. Even when he campaigns, as he did in both his State of the
Union and September 2009 speeches to the joint session of Congress, Obama rarely
offers any specifics to his proposals, preferring to avoid getting entangled in
the various interests competing on the issues.

Of course, many of us predicted just that from a man who racked up an
impressive number of “presents” in the state legislature before coming to
Congress. Before taking the oath of office as President, Obama had never
been put in the position of providing political leadership. Even in the
legislatures, Obama didn’t perform any leadership duties except as a chair of a
committee in Illinois. As President, Obama has done nothing at all to craft his
own agenda, outsourcing it instead to Nancy Pelosi and offering only tepid
support of various ObamaCare components.

Under those circumstances, the presidential scolding during the SOTU
was bound to ruffle feathers among the Democratic caucuses. Sen. Mary
Landrieu (D-LA) reacted immediately by accusing Obama of having “mailed in” a
leadership role in the speech. The only surprise about Franken lashing out
at Axelrod, the architect of Obama’s approach, is that he didn’t beat Landrieu
to the punch.

Still, what did Democrats expect when they backed Obama for the
nomination?

-- from HOT AIR (yeah, and not that skanky cloud of smog hanging above the White House.)