A new Republican claim that I haven't heard.

[SoutherDem]

Yesterday, on The Diane Rehm Show the guests were the authors of the new book “It’s Even Worst Than It Looks”, Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann. It is about the gridlock in congress and places a majority blame on the Republicans. No argument from me.

But, I heard a caller make a claim which I had not heard before. I thought I may have misunderstood, so I listened to the rebroadcast. It still surprised me so I waited for the transcript before asking DU if this is a common claim.

Here is the excerpt (I have included the time stamp and will give the link, so anyone who wants to get the full context);

BOB
10:40:57
I -- I've had a wide range of reaction to the conversation as I've been listening from -- starting out with much laughter at listening to the gentlemen try to explain how bipartisan and even-handed they are to a little bit of outrage in the last segment of them saying how much Obama wanted to work with the Democrats. They conveniently forgot that when Mr. Obama came into that meeting, he said, I won, you lost, sit down and listen. So how is that the Republicans' fault? In the first segment, they said that...

REHM
10:41:39
OK. Hold on one second, Bob. Hold on. I want to clarify, is there any documentation to tell us that President Obama sat down for his first meeting with Republicans and said, I won, you lost, sit down and listen? Norm.

ORNSTEIN
10:42:02
No. What we do know, at least from the news reports, is that in an early meeting, John McCain was lecturing the president about giving a list of basically non-negotiable demands, and Obama said, elections matter, I won. You lost. But that's not exactly how it started.

ORNSTEIN
10:42:22
And it's also worth pointing out, Robert Draper, in his very good new book about the Republicans in the House of Representatives, mentions a meeting that took place among leaders at the inaugural evening at the Capital Grille, where they basically plotted out a strategy that said, we're going to try and bring everything down and vote against everything. So...

Has anyone heard the claim of the caller that President Obama first thing stated "I won, you lost, sit down and listen?

Has anyone heard the claim by Mr. Ornstein that John McCain, even though having lost, gave a list of demands?

I have heard the claims of Robert Draper, many times, that Republicans formed a strategy the day of the inauguration to stop President Obama.

If all the claims are factual it seem, as so often is done, the Republicans have twisted what they did and claimed the Democrats, specifically President Obama, did it.

Why are these people able to lie and make so many believe them?

[link:http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-07/thomas-mann-and-norman-ornstein-its-even-worse-it-looks/transcript|

[uponit7771]

1. It was meant for McCain and who cares if he did say that Obama has bent over backwards at the cost

...of people like me thinking he's looking or being naive for little to no gain.

LBJ wouldn't play with the GOP the way Obama is right now and would be on TV every single day with every single utterance to make sure the nation knew the GOP was abusing the filibuster rule and subverting the ideals of this nation.

[barbtries]

2. i don't know about the truth of any of it

but i'll still say this. even if the president did say that, it doesn't give the republicans a reason for their unconscionable obstructionism.

[mazzarro]

3. No surprise if the rePIGs engage in rewrite of history

They have become experts at doing that and will sya or do anything to make their point even if it is outright lying. Everything they say has to be politically leaned toward their lunacy.

[Cleita]

4. It sounds familiar to me but not out of Obama's mouth but out of George W. Bush's.

The tone is Bushian anyway. I've never heard Obama say anything that cowboy-like.

[Cleita]

5. Okay, I found this that sheds some light on the situation.

As usual, what he said was taken out of context.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/11/president_obamas_i_won_to_repu.html

<clip>

House Republicans have been complaining about not being consulted, and as Cantor explained the details of some of the ideas he and his GOP colleagues would like to see in the package, President Obama read the one-pager and told him, "Eric, I don't see anything crazy in here."

Among some of the things Republicans requested: tax deductions for some small businesses, making unemployment benefits tax free and a provision that would let businesses losing money carry the losses over to pay fewer taxes in a different fiscal year.

Mr. Obama did voice opinion on some differences on the issue of whether the lowest individual tax rates should be cut from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent.

As the president, he had told Kyl after the Arizonan raised objections to the notion of a tax credit for people who don't pay income taxes, Obama told Cantor this morning that "on some of these issues we're just going to have ideological differences."

The president added, "I won. So I think on that one, I trump you."

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Here's what was reported about that meeting and comment in Jan. 2009...

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/01/23/obama-to-gop-i-won/

Challenged by one Republican senator over the contents of the package, the new president, according to participants, replied: “I won.”

The statement was prompted by Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona , who challenged the president and the Democratic leaders over the balance between the package’s spending and tax cuts, bringing up the traditional Republican notion that a tax credit for people who do not earn enough to pay income taxes is not a tax cut but a government check.

With those two words — “I won” — the Democratic president let the Republicans know that debate has been put to rest Nov. 4 .

Democratic and Republican aides confirmed the exchange. A White House spokesman said he wasn’t immediately aware of the exchange. The aides who heard the remarks stressed that it wasn’t as boldly partisan as it might sound.

[lpbk2713]

7. Good on Diane for asking for authentication.

I listen to her program whenever I have the opportunity. A lot of the time it's easy to discern a caller's agenda. Some times it is real easy to tell when a caller is full of crap. Diane usually does a good job in weeding these types out.

[auburngrad82]

8. Did they mention Bush having a mandate to do whatever the hell he wanted in his second term?

It all boils down to the fact that republicans hate Obama and don't know why. So they make shit up and it turns into fact in their books.

I don't care what he said to McCain. I wish he had pushed stuff through instead of trying to work with the GOP. The country would be much better off than it is. Even with the gridlock caused by the GOP's obstructionist tactics Obama has kept over 160 of his campaign promises.

Not bad for a Kenya-born Muslim Socialist who is worse than Hitler in the minds of the average republican.