Does Obama’s no-lobbyist rule include Daschle?

I know, I know. Tom Daschle, an Obama BFF and his Health and Human Services secretary nominee, is technically a rainmaker and not a lobbyist, so Obama’s anti-lobbying executive order doesn’t apply.

Then again, isn’t the rainmaker vs. lobbyist issue the type of hairsplitting that Slick Willie exemplified.

Should we cut B.O. some slack? Some folks say yes:

“Sometimes you can over-promise,” said former Sen. Warren Rudman.

And:

"”t was probably a mistake to come down so hard on lobbyists,” said Melanie Sloan, as executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “I think the Obama folks' intentions were great here. But sometimes you realize you can't actually govern on just what you campaigned on.”

I’m not so ready to cut slack.

And, at the same time, Peter Baker got a different quote out of Sloan:

“This is a big problem for Obama, especially because it was such a major, major promise,” said Sloan. “He harped on it, time after time, and he created a sense of expectation around the country. This is exactly why people are skeptical of politicians, because change we can believe in is not the same thing as business as usual.”

Bingo, bingo and bingo.

Baker says some unnamed Dems have similar concerns.

In other words, Obama is at risk of becoming the next Jimmy Carter – not the post-1980 sainted Jimmy Carter, but the Jimmy Carter almost loathed by Tip O’Neill.

So, no, contrary to Melanie Sloan in Quote No. 1, I am not ready to cut any slack

I would be, if we could get a little crow-eating from Obama himself, and even more crow-eating from rabid Obamiacs.

I’m not holding my breath on either.

On the first, as I’ve blogged before, I thought there was a fair amount of hubris in Obama’s short-lived pseudo-Great Seal campaign seal from last summer. Ditto for the Roman columns idea at Invesco Field in Denver.

As for the more rabid Obamiacs, well, y’all are just insufferable. Therefore, until you start suffering, I gots no problem continuing to hit you upside the head.

Don’t like it? Find some humility. Admit that he is Just.Another.Politician.™