"There's a man goin' round takin' names"

And I hope his name is Obama.

Of course, I don't expect the President to PERSONALLY visit Blue Dogs and wobblies, but he surely, by now, has his version of Leo McGarry---someone who will drape an arm over the shoulder of those who've forgotten they have a "D" after their name and then smile a little smile. "The President is a good man" this Leo person will say. "He has a good heart and he doesn't carry grudges" And, here, he'll take his hand off the shoulder, walk to the door and, just before he exits, will turn and fix the recalcitrant legislator with a look that could peel paint and say, in an even voice, "That's what he has me for."

All this will be after they've had an "earnest dialogue" wherein campaign funding, contested primaries and how absolutely awewome Air Force One can be when it lands at a candidate's home town airport are discussed. Hopefully, most of the stains will come out of the carpet.

Imagine a Blue Dog getting ready for a town hall, and Obama arrives to upstage him.

but characters like Leo McGarry had one thing that this Obama White House does not have, and that's years and years of experience on the Hill.

Rahm Emanuel wasn't there long enough.

The others are outlanders, and that goes nowhere on the Hill.

LBJ was the perfect example of how to get in there and twist arms, make promises, withhold pork, and line them up to vote correctly. He had a lifetime on the Hill, and no one knew their way around like LBJ. Jimmy Carter is still-living proof that you cannot go to Washington without a history, or without surrounding yourself with veterans.

I fear that that's going to be Obama's downfall. He didn't have enough time in the Senate, Emanuel is lacking, and the rest - no.

It's very troubling. I wish life would imitate art the same way that art imitated life on The West Wing, but, sadly, it's not working that way..............

but nothing like what's needed on something of the magnitude of health coverage revolution. It would have to be an assault sort of like Normandy, only from all directions. Rahm in the House and Joe in the Senate are not enough.

But, maybe things are different now. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am, and I hope they're doing it right.

I'd love to be wrong. But the truth is that I miss LBJ right about now. The man knew how it worked, and I loved that about him.................

who gave friends plenty to love and enemies a lot to hate. But, the man had very few equals in not just knowing exactly what was necessary to move a piece of legislation, but having the steel in the spine and the fire in the belly to GET IT DONE.

I actually considered referencing LBJ in my OP, but decided Leo was a more "current"(and attractive) "ass kicker".

Thanks for you thoughts.

but don't you think a lot of Leo was based on LBJ - a cleaned-up version? I always thought so.

When you consider what Johnson did, if you just bypass Vietnam - which seems impossible, given that it ultimately brought him down - he was one of our greatest Presidents, right up there (in my mind) with FDR.

I understand that he got a lot of sympathy votes when he rammed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he also knew he was risking the South (he was right), but he took that remnant of the New Frontier, took advantage of what he had sadly inherited, and went with it. We got the EEOC out of that one. We got equal pay law!

It took great big ones to make that happen.

THEN, he began his Great Society. Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start - his War On Poverty was amazing. I fear not many people today, who take so much of it for granted, realize it was the loathesome Lyndon Baines Johnson ("Hey, hey, LBJ, how many babies did you kill today?" I helped chant as we marched at the White House in 1966) who made those programs a reality that continues almost a half century later.

No other President in recent history has come close to what he accomplished.

Ever read Robert Caro's three-volume on LBJ? I'm telling you, hound your local library to get them, if you can't find good copies available at a reasonable price at alibris. com. Smashing, brilliant, compelling story-telling with excellent political perspective.

Thank you for your posts. I watch for you, always sure that something special is coming. You never let me down, for which I am grateful...........