White House's Gibbs says little about mayors' conference
4:32 PM Tue, Jun 16, 2009 | Permalink
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WASHINGTON -- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked Tuesday afternoon to talk about the unhappiness of mayors after Vice President Biden and a large number of administration officials cancelled their plans to appear in Providence at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Gibbs did not add much to his initial statement announcing the cancellation a week before the meeting, which began Friday and wrapped up Monday. The White House cancelled the visit to Providence because a firefighters local planned to picket over its continuing labor dispute with Mayor Davis N. Cicilline. Here is an excerpt from the transcript of Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters: Q. Robert, the U.S. Conference of Mayors was very happy early on in this administration, saying they had a friend in the White House when the President was engaging them on the recovery plan. Now they're very, very upset about the White House not crossing this picketing. Could you talk about that? Is the good of the whole being neglected for one city? GIBBS: No, I think the administration has denoted pretty clearly that obviously we have worked with officials at a city, county, state level, particularly as it relates to the recovery plan. But I think, as the statement from me says clearly, it's not our policy to cross the picket line. Q. If the conference, the three-day conference, was in another city, would the high-profile White House officials have attended? If it were in another city that did not have any kind of picket -- GIBBS: Look, let me see if I'm accurately paraphrasing your question. If there wasn't a picket line that we wouldn't cross, would we go? Q. Right. In another city. GIBBS: Again, our policy is we don't want to cross a picket line. So if there's not a picket line in Smithville and that's where the conference is, we'll go to the conference.
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So who asked the question? Seems odd if this is a news story with direct quotation, that the source would not be reported.
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Hey pro jo enough now with the conference why dont you do a story on why the secrete service was out with the providence pd taken down plate numbers?
why dont you also do a story on how much the city spent for this when they are brook?
why dont you do a story on the chef of staff who was injured and ask him how is care was by the pfd and hospital if he had to wait hours to be seen or did they push him up because of who he was?
and what hospital did he get sent to?
why dont you do a story on the mayor who left the city? or the mayor who went of the path to eat some were else in the city besides the places were the cicci was drying to dictate were to eat
why dont you do a story if the mayor thanked the fire department for the detail for the fire works?
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Q. If the conference, the three-day conference, was in another city, would the high-profile White House officials have attended? If it were in another city that did not have any kind of picket --
Proof that journalism is dead in this country.
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As I have said this past week the Obama administration is living up to it's promise to the worker and small guy ,We actually have an
administration who realizes who made this country
great,who fights the wars and is paying the bills
to bail out all you circus clowns who put us into such a sad state of affairs !! A LITTLE ADVISE TO THE HOLD OUTS IN GOV."PASS THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT "NOW !!!THE MAJORITY
OF THIS COUNTRY WANTS IT !!!
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Hey Greg,
Why should the mayor have to thank the fire fighters for working a detail at the fireworks display? Isn't time and a half pay enough of a "thank you" for doing their jobs?
I love how people complain about how much a conference costs! First of all, the money comes from private sponsors, not taxpayers. Second, all the money is spent on local vendors and benefits local people, from the caterers to the tent company employees to the union staff at the hotels and convention center. Never mind the local restaurants that were jam-packed this weekend and the many cops and firefighters who worked details.
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Yet again,most posters are expressing opinions that do not reflect reality.
The Obama administration clearly supports the position of the Prov.firefighters.In fact,they clearly support the rights of all workers,unionized or not.
One would expect that any poster,who is an employee, not an employer,would be applauding the decision of the White House to respect the FFs picket.Yet,again though,only in RI, does the average citizen allow themselves to be manipulated by those who do not have their best interests at heart.
If anyone thinks that undermining contracts, negotiated between union workers and any state or municipal govt.,will translate to lower taxes for the general public,take a look at history-even recent history.
Lower salaries for said workers only frees up monies that can be paid to,among others, "volunteers"(the Lucas group)furthering a Rep.agenda, or an "auditor" (KPMG)hired to prepare a personal defense against criminal wrongdoing,on the taxpayer's dime.
Wake up posters,before your pockets are emptied by those in RI who have sought political office for reasons that do not serve the average taxpayer.
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Don't the union guys get it?
The union leaders are all over the place bellowing that the administration showed solid support for the union's cause.
The Obama admin never said they SUPPORTED the firefighters--just that they wouldn't cross A picket line. Any picket line.
In fact, I think they were pretty careful to avoid saying anything at all about supporting the Providence Firefighters.
They're politicians, and their number one goal is to maintain voter support.
If they sent any message at all, it was, "We're not going to get involved in this."
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