Axelrod Responds Harshly to Cheney

By MIKE ALLEN | Politico

David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, said Sunday that recent comments by former Vice President Dick Cheney about the new administration were “irresponsible” and suggest that he is “having a hard time dealing with … the verdict of the American people.”

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” moderator David Gregory asked Axelrod about a Politico interview in which Cheney said he worried the Obama administration had a naïve mindset about battling terrorists, and asserts that the U.S. “needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected.”

Axelrod responded harshly to Cheney, but said former President George W. Bush had been cordial …

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Hardball Politics Stay in the Oval

By BEN SMITH | Politico

Despite his past denunciations of the “perpetual campaign” — and “political hacks like Karl Rove” — President Barack Obama’s version of change doesn’t include banishing hardball politics from the environs of the Oval Office.

Like presidents before him, Obama has imported pieces of his campaign into the White House, ranging from his own Rove, David Axelrod, to two dozen campaign staffers who will serve as liaisons with agencies. A top Iowa aide, for instance, is moving to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Obama resisted calls to abolish the White House Office of Political Affairs from everyone from his rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), installing a well-regarded but low-profile labor operative, Patrick Gaspard, as his political director.

He’s maintaining a giant, novel permanent campaign, Organizing for America, at the Democratic National Committee. And Obama aides Wednesday hinted that they would exact a cost from Republicans who opposed the stimulus, promising to release local jobs numbers in the districts of GOP members of Congress who voted against the plan …

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