Readers of this blog are quite familiar with Jim Messina, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President Obama. He was also in charge of the White House LGBT strategy, including DADT repeal. Among other things, he's the guy who blocked SLDN from coming to meetings on DADT repeal strategy.
Ari Berman has a in-depth profile of Messina, who is now Obama's reelection campaign manager. It's worth a read. There's a long look at Messina's key role in the health care reform legislation. And, here's an excerpt on Messina's relation with the LGBT community:
Gay rights was another major issue on which Messina clashed with Obama supporters. The relationship between the administration and gay rights groups was strained from the outset, when Obama chose Rick Warren to deliver his inaugural invocation. “It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot-on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation,” wrote Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in the Washington Post.Now, as we've seen, the repeal of DADT legislation was one of Obama's biggest victories in the first term. But, it took awhile for the political masterminds at the White House to figure that out.
After reading the op-ed, Messina sternly rebuked Solmonese during a meeting at the White House. “I’m never going back to another meeting like that again,” Solmonese angrily told his staff afterward. From then on, HRC, to the consternation of other gay rights groups, toed the administration line.
With Messina as a top liaison to the gay rights community, the White House was reluctant to make repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) a key legislative priority. “The White House, under Rahm and Messina, suffered from political homophobia,” says Joe Sudbay, who writes about gay rights issues for AMERICAblog. “They’re not homophobes in the traditional sense of the word, but they think it’s dangerous to do gay issues in politics.” Groups that questioned Messina’s strategy, such as the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, were frozen out of key White House meetings. “I felt like he was constantly angry with those of us who would not fall in line,” says Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United (no relation to SLDN).
Remember, last June, when the President was at the G-20 summit, he stated, "Or I say, we’re going to move forward on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and somehow people say, well, why are you doing that, I’m not sure that’s good politics." I'm not sure who was telling Obama it wasn't "good politics." And, I'm not sure Obama was getting the best political advice from his White House staff. Now, one of them is running the reelection campaign.
Lots of people wouldn't talk to Ari Berman on-the-record out of fears of retribution. Seriously, he wrote "Some declined to speak on the record for fear of retribution." And, there's this:
To this day, however, many of his critics shy away from publicly criticizing him. “If you want to have a future in Montana politics, you don’t criticize Jim Messina,” says James Anacker, a former field rep for Baucus. “That would be career suicide. People are afraid of him, to tell you the truth.”It's too bad Republicans don't fear Obama the way some Democratic operatives apparently fear Messina.
Anyway, sure seems like Messina's time is better spent getting people on board with the President's reelection. Because, the way the White House political team, which he led, did politics over the past couple years makes that job harder.
(And, if I get any "retribution," I'll let you all know. )
