Obama makes enemies out of those who disagree

Washington Times:

The Obama White House has deliberately placed favored Washington institutions of the Bush years in its crosshairs, a sign of an escalating battle between the Democratic administration and some of the city's pre-eminent power players.

In recent days, the administration has attacked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the insurance industry for opposing key administration objectives, has criticized the nation's largest banks and financial firms for outsized executive pay, and has tried to delegitimize the Fox News Channel by mocking its objectivity.

"When you're on their side, it's all OK, but if you're not, they rain hell down on you," said R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, bemoaning the administration's bellicose response to differing opinions on health care and financial regulatory reform proposals.

But Dan Pfeiffer, President Obama's deputy communications director, said the Democratic White House is not abiding by the rules that defined the nation's capital when a Republican president was in office.

"The insurers, the chamber and other special interests had the run of this town for the last eight years. That's not true anymore," Mr. Pfeiffer said. "And they are reacting to the new reality."

Yet the administration's targets are offended by what they consider misleading vitriol. They also say the tactics are dated and dangerous to serious discourse.

A senior Republican lawmaker on Wednesday raised concern that the White House was creating an "enemies list" in much the same way that the Nixon White House did.

"If the president and his top aides treat people with different views as enemies instead of listening to what they have to say, they're likely to end up with a narrow view and a feeling that the whole world is out to get them," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican.

In comments on the Senate Floor, Mr. Alexander said he has "an uneasy feeling, only 10 months into this new administration, that we're beginning to see symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration" as those that animated the Nixon White House - where Mr. Alexander himself served as a young aide.

The Obama White House used Mr. Alexander's words to portray Republicans as obstructionist, a charge they have aimed at the GOP repeatedly.

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The problem with this approach is that people take different positions on different issues. If you alienate them because of a stand on a particular issue, you are less likely to get their support on other issues. It is also going to have a negative effect on fund raising in the future.

The attacks on Fox are already looking counter productive. The Fox ratings are surging and the rest of the media is not going to go along with ignoring news simply because it was uncovered by Fox. To do so would only drive further traffic toward Fox as the only place to see that news. This would mean that the administration would have no friendly coverage of the issue at all.