On Washington and poker

I want to have a little fun with John Feehery regarding his comments about Obama and poker, beginning with this: I am sure the reports of Obama's great poker skills in the Illinois Legislature are true. No doubt he won every game, every time, without exception, but I hate to break this news: In poker involving elected officials and lobbyists, the lobbyists lose every time, and the electeds win, and the money changes hands, from the lobbyist to the elected official, which is the object of the game.

More important, President Barack Obama is by far the worst poker player of any president or major leader in my lifetime. He announces his surrenders in advance, receiving nothing in return, bringing out every lobbyist shark in Washington who smells blood, who then feasts on the remains, along with the lobbyist’s allies in Congress, who take their money, in the most recent case in the Senate, who smell blood too, and feast on the remains as well.

When I was a young man in this town, I worked for Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), who it was said passed more constitutional law than anyone since Jefferson. My bosses would take me to visit Kenny O'Donnell, the great aide to John and Robert Kennedy, who would hold court at the old Mayflower Hotel. This is where I first learned about high politics.

I worked for the House Democratic leadership under several Speakers, the first being Tip O'Neill (D-Mass.), who was the ultimate master of the game. I also worked for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas), one of the masters of the upper chamber, who I would add played poker with Harry Truman and Speaker Sam Rayburn when he was a young member of the House.

So I know a little bit about poker and how to get things done in Washington, and I tell you this: It is no coincidence that during the first year of the Obama presidency, lobbyists won gigantic victory across the board. The result was huge profits based on Obama’s and Democratic policies for banks, Wall Street, insurers, Big Pharma and, after Copenhagen, big polluters. Followed by huge salaries, completed by historic bonuses, accompanied by over 17 percent real joblessness.

Not a great poker performance by the president, right? When a handful of insurance industry-paid senators say they will never vote for a bill unless their demands are met, while liberal senators denounce the sellouts while they announce their surrender, who wins that poker game?

My brother Feehery has stumbled into a profound issue, maybe the single most profound issue of the Obama presidency, which is this:

If one poker player bluffs and says he has four aces with his cards turned down, and the other poker player says he has a pair of threes with his cards turned down, the result is a Democratic Congress with unfavorable ratings at 69 percent in the latest Gallup poll.

I learned that from Kenny O'Donnell, Birch Bayh, Lloyd Bentsen and Tip O'Neill in their own words, in the backrooms, long ago.