Jamie Dimon Owns Obama’s Testicles
Jamie Dimon owns Barack Obama’s testicles. That’s the only explanation I can think of for why, rather than firing his JP Morgan Exec Chief of Staff for being incompetent, Obama simply shifted him over to serve as the public face of his Administration.
Ten months into his tenure as chief of staff, [Bill] Daley’s core responsibilities are shifting, following White House missteps in the debt-ceiling fight and in its relations with Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
On Monday, Mr. Daley turned over day-to-day management of the West Wing to Pete Rouse, a veteran aide to President Obama, according to several people familiar with the matter. It is unusual for a White House chief of staff to relinquish part of the job.
[snip]
The new set-up effectively makes Mr. Rouse the president’s inside manager and Mr. Daley his ambassador, roles that appear to better suit both men’s talents.
As you recall, Daley was hired as a sop to the banks, who thought endless bailouts weren’t enough bounty from this and the prior Administration and successfully demanded having one of their own in the White House gatekeeper position. And so, after fucking up the debt ceiling, and fucking up the introduction of Obama’s jobs push (and overseeing the passage of three trade agreements that will send jobs overseas), Daley has been moved into a figurehead role.
Here’s a snapshot of the kind of people whom Daley is sucking up to as “Ambassador”: the architect of the housing bubble-and-crash, the embodiment of corruption in the GSEs, and a guy who helped pass a law that will help his wife’s insurance company, only to leave to work for the Chamber of Commerce and a private equity firm.
Lately, Mr. Daley has been trying out his new role, deploying his back-slapping persona in Washington social circles. He recently held a private reception at his Ritz Carlton residence for a small group of D.C. elites, including former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, former Fanne Mae Chief Executive Jim Johnson and Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the U.S.
Former Sen. Evan Bayh (D., Ind.) said an invitation to lunch with Mr. Daley in his West Wing office was the first time he had heard from him.
So at a time when Obama’s campaign wants to pretend he’s taking a tough line with the 1%, he’s refusing to fire 1%er Bill Daley when he proves to be incompetent. Does this mean the banksters will effectively retain their own personal gate-keeper?
And FWIW, I believe Pete Rouse was and will be the best of the three Chiefs of Staff Obama has had, so I approve of that move. Though I question the wisdom of making the move just in time for another government shutdown, which is due up in the next few weeks.
The mere fact that Daley lives at the Ritz Carlton should (and does) tell anyone who looks all they need to know, not only about the attitude in this administration but also how truly concerned about optics this administration is, or is not, and about the extent of the Democrat-ness of the purported Democrats in charge.
And, as to Jamie Dimon owning Obama’s balls, that’s been obvious since the spring of 2009. Remember, Obama went to Wall Street to give a speech chewing them out for their greed, and there were three major Wall Street players who blew off his speech and didn’t attend: Dimon, Blankfein, and whoever was running Citi at the time.
We who were watching (and Wall Street surely was) knew then (or our pre-existing suspicions were confirmed) that they were in charge and Obama their bitch.
A couple months later, Obama brought the heads of the major investment banks down for a Monday morning meeting at the White House, to chew them out ofr not doing more to boost the recovery (or that was the publicly stated purpose of the meeting). Three of them blew off the meeting, purportedly because it was too foggy for their respective private jets to fly: Blankfein, Dimon, and (IIRC) whoever was heading Citi at the time.
If there was ever any doubt about Obama being their bitch, that incident confirmed it beyond any residual doubt.
Anyone who evinces surprise at this late date that Obama is Wall Street’s house-servant simply hasn’t been watching.
The level of corruption and or incompetence of the administration is truly remarkable.
When The BIg Zero, in his campaign rhetoric, promised this administration to be “The most transparent” who knew that he was talking about open, transparent and blatant bloody corruption.
As for Dimon owning The BIg Zero’s balls…he didn’t have any to begin with.
@scribe:
I’m voting for Bill Clinton. Just listened to him on Morning Joey.
The guy’s incredible, insightful, and just downright correct.
@Bay State Librul: Well, if past performance is any guide to the future, he won’t effect much of a change. He set into motion, or did not stop, most of the catastrophes we see unfoldng now. And he also gave jobs to a lot of the pseudo-Democrats now in office.
I remember his promises of change and the exultation about the end of “12 long years” after the 1992 election. With the benefit of hindsight, we didn’t get that much changes or ending the rolling debacle of Reagan-Bush I.
So, Slick Willie gets to continue enjoying his retirement.
Mr. Daley – let the good times roll – for you and your pals, at least!
@scribe:
“i’m the only one standing between you and the pitchforks.”
– president barrack obama in a talk to banking execs
ew,
there’s a mistake in your title.
obama ain’t got no balls,
no balls atall.
Any particular reason you’re optimistic about Rouse? (Granted, he’s not Rahm and he’s not William M. Daley, so that’s at least something.) Professor Wiki says: “Rouse has spent years on Capitol Hill, becoming known as the ‘101st senator’ during his tenure as Chief of Staff to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle.” This is not immediately inspiring.
Worked with Russ Feingold, worked against the Roberts SCOTUS nomination, tried to close Guantanamo — good points. Noticeably, all three noble efforts failed. Bad points — well, he’s been in the Obama White House since the beginning managing all this. So, again, any particular reason you’re optimistic?
I think this is just adopting the private sector’s CEO rule – always increase the payout, especially when the CEO fucks up. Ask H-P. It’s the cost of omerta; worth ten points in the market or opinion polls, or so insiders tell themselves when the fire other insiders.
@Tom Allen: Easy. Does Rouse ever go on TV? Did anyone know who was WH Cos before Ray-gun was elected? My other guess is that Rouse never goes off message if he were ever to be on MTP(or other such wastes of time), unlike DINO Daley.
Either Obama is totally conceited about his chances to win the next election. There is the possibility that the voters who voted for him last time won’t even bother to go to the polls…
@orionATL:
We’d be better off today if he had stood aside and let the pitchforks at the bankers. (If we’d known what we were in for, some of those pitchforks might have missed the bankers accidentally-on-purpose.)