From Politico:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, piqued with White House pressure to accept the Senate health reform bill, threw a rare rhetorical elbow at President Barack Obama Tuesday, questioning his commitment to his 2008 campaign promises.
A leadership aide said it was no accident.
Pelosi emerged from a meeting with her leadership team and committee chairs in the Capitol to face an aggressive throng of reporters who immediately hit her with C-SPAN’s request that she permit closed-door final talks on the bill to be televised.
A reporter reminded the San Francisco Democrat that in 2008, then-candidate Obama opined that all such negotiations be open to C-SPAN cameras.
“There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail,” quipped Pelosi, who has no intention of making the deliberations public.
...The House aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pelosi has been miffed with Obama’s tilt toward the Senate plan and his expectation the House will simply go along with the Senate bill out of political necessity.
A Pelosi aide later downplayed the remark, saying, "It was a quip, not a jab at anyone."
I love that spin.
Quip. Jab.
Pelosi was joking around, not taking swipes at Obama.
I doubt that Obama and his henchmen at the White House see it that way.
Later in the Politico article:
At one point during the Tuesday afternoon press conference, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) quipped: “The Senate should know that we need 218 votes.”
So Rangel "quipped."
That wasn't a jab at the Senate. To me, these alleged quips seem more like jabs.
There's a very fine line between quipping and jabbing in Washington.
Actually, I don't think there's a line at all.
They could be described as quips meant to jab, or jabs cloaked in quips.
Essentially, the statements are meant to sting. Calling them quips doesn't eliminate that.
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