House Democrats’ frustration with White House spokesman Gibbs boils over


The frustration that House liberals have had with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has festered throughout the 111th Congress.

And it boiled over this week as two House Democrats called for Gibbs’s head after he made controversial statements to The Hill about the “professional left.”

{mosads}The strained relationship between Gibbs and some House Democrats goes back to early last year when powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) publicly criticized President Obama’s top spokesman.

The Oberstar-Gibbs dust-up started in February of 2009, when Gibbs used the White House briefing room to slap down a mileage tax proposal put forward by Transportation Secretary and former Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.).

Oberstar fired back, defending his former colleague against unfair attacks from administration “know-nothings.”



LaHood “had the temerity to think … and what did he get? Slapped down,” Oberstar told Congressional Quarterly. “He’s a good man. A decent man. Don’t let him get slapped down by know-nothings.

“I’ve got news for you,” he added. “Transportation policy isn’t going to be written in the press room of the White House.”

However, the gas mileage tax idea has not resurfaced, and despite Oberstar’s pleas, the White House declined to endorse a $500 billion transportation reauthorization bill. 


The Gibbs-Oberstar flare-up was minor compared to the uproar Gibbs sparked when he blasted the “professional left’s” criticism of Obama.

 Gibbs’s lengthy remarks ignited the blogosphere and attracted immediate attention from cable news shows.

Fewer than 24 hours after Gibbs’s interview with The Hill was published, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) had called on him to resign. Ellison was joined on Wednesday by outspoken Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla).

”I don’t think he should resign, I think he should be fired,” Grayson said on MSNBC. 

”He’s done a miserable job … People I know refer to him as ‘Bozo the spokesman,’ ” the politically vulnerable Democrat said.

For months, many House Democrats have privately complained about the White House.

“This is not the first time that Mr. Gibbs has made untoward and inflammatory comments, and I certainly hope that people in the White House don’t share his view that the left is unimportant to the president,” Ellison told the Huffington Post. “I understand him having some loyalty to the president who employs him, but I think he’s walking over the line.”

Gibbs, a former aide to Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.), indicated this week he has no plans to leave his post.

”I don’t plan on leaving,” Gibbs said Wednesday after missing Tuesday’s briefing due to what the White House described as “a sore throat and the sniffles.” 

Gibbs did not retract what he said, but he did describe his comments as “inartful.” 

”I watch a lot of cable TV, and you don’t have to watch long to get frustrated by some of what’s said,” Gibbs said Wednesday. “And I think that’s what that answer was born out of.”

Gibbs last month said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there was “no doubt” there were enough House seats in play to flip control of the lower chamber to the GOP.

That remark drew a swift rebuke — at least behind closed doors — from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Pressed on Gibbs’s remark recently on ABC’s “This Week,” Pelosi responded, “I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about what the president’s employees say about one thing or another.”

Pelosi has denied the existence of a rift with the White House, telling reporters there was “absolutely no reason to think that the White House has been anything but cooperative with us in terms of our political efforts to retain control of the Congress.”

 The White House did not comment for this article.