Ellison: I didn’t call for Gibbs’ resignation

Robert Gibbs. Photo: WDCpix

Rep. Keith Ellison was none too fond of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ recent comment that the “professional left” would only be satisfied with the Obama administration after “we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon,” but he didn’t call for Gibbs’ resignation, he says. “To set the record straight, I did not call for White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to resign,” the Minnesota Democrat said in a statement. “Unfortunately the Huffington Post and other media outlets got the story wrong. I did say, however, that he went too far in his rhetoric. We all know that words matter in politics. I hope that Mr. Gibbs has reconsidered the wisdom of his words.”

When asked by Huffington Post if Gibbs should resign, Ellison is quoted as saying, “That’d be fair, because this isn’t the first time.”

In a Tuesday press release, Ellison reacted, stating that in the weeks preceding the midterm election, “Democrats need to pull together, not go after each other.” And in doing so, he dropped that party-unifying name, George W. Bush.

We should continue to focus on the issues facing working families across America. Thousands of progressive activists worked tirelessly to elect President Obama in order to move beyond the disastrous policies of the Bush administration. The country elected Democrats to bring change and to govern.

Labels matter less than the fact that progressives actually delivered support and votes for the economic recovery package, health care reform, and Wall Street reform.  These accomplishments helped deliver on the Democrats’ promise to bring desperately needed change to working families across the nation.

Let’s pull together and continue to move past the failed policies of the Bush era.  That’s what we are here to do.

Gibbs, too, walked back his statement, calling his words “inartful” and echoing Ellison’s call for unity, as Luke Johnson at the American Independent reports:

“I watch too much cable, I admit,” he said. Calling for unity, he said, “So we should all, me included, stop fighting each other and arguing about our differences on certain policies, and instead work together to make sure everyone knows what is at stake because we’ve come too far to turn back now.”