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.”

Rep. Keith Ellison

Rep. Keith Ellison called for the resignation of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs after he said the “professional left” would only be satisfied with the Obama administration after “we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon.”

In an interview with The Hill, Gibbs vented further: “I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested.” On people who said that President Obama was too centrist, he said, “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”

Rep. Ellison told The Huffington Post, “This is not the first time that Mr. Gibbs has made untoward and inflammatory comments and I certainly hope that people in the White House don’t share his view that the left is unimportant to the presiden. I understand him having some loyalty to the president who employs him, but I think he’s walking over the line.”

Ellison said that Gibbs’ resignation was warranted. “That’d be fair, because this isn’t the first time. And, again, people of all political shades worked very hard to help the president become the president. Why would he want to go out and deliberately insult the president’s base? And why would he confuse legitimate critique with some sort of lack of loyalty. Isn’t this what the far right does? Punishes people who are not ideologically aligned with President Bush?”

On the claim that the “professional left” would only be satisfied after the Pentagon was eliminated, Rep. Ellison said, “I know of none. So I think that was an inflammatory remark that is emblematic of his careless use of language and is an example of why he may not be the best person for the job.”

White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said the “professional left” that Gibbs referred to were cable commentators. Gibbs said in a statement to The Huffington Post that his comments were “inartful” and “change hasn’t come fast enough for many Americans.”

Update: Ellison: I didn’t call for Gibbs’ resignation

RT stands in for another Blue Eyes (RIP)

As President-elect Obama moves to fill staff positions in his transition team and administration, locals with ties to his candidacy and a desire to move to Washington, D.C., may reasonably hold out hope of being tapped. One post that already got away from the Minnesota crowd is that of White House press secretary — Politico reports this morning that Obama has chosen campaign and Senate aide Robert Gibbs, who’s from Alabama, to fill that high-visibility vacancy. Gibbs, who served as communication director at Obama for America, beat out Bill Burton, the campaign’s national press secretary and a University of Minnesota alum. Burton made Blois Olson’s MinnPost list of Minnesotans with Obama job prospects this week.

Also on Olson’s list is Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, an early advocate of the draft-Obama movement whose line on an Obama administration post I traced back in June. Rybak’s background as a reporter got him cited at the Minneapolis Issues list this week as a possible Obama spokester, but his potential as a federal Housing and Urban Development pick is more frequently raised. Any D.C. job would likely pose a work conflict with Rybak’s rumored 2010 gubernatorial ambitions.

The news today that U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel will be Obama’s chief of staff means Minnesotans may want to take advantage of any ties they have to the Illinois congressman. One is Ashwin Madia, with whom Emanuel campaigned on a special trip to Minnesota last month. The two pols “are good friends and enjoyed campaigning together. They are both incredibly smart, hard-working individuals. Whether that translates into something more in the future is anyone’s guess,” Madia spokesperson Dan Pollock wrote in response to an e-mail inquiry this morning.

Meanwhile the Minnesotan with the biggest job dangled before him is Gov. Tim Pawlenty. No longer the subject of vice-presidential speculation now that McCain passed him over for colder pastures, Pawlenty has moved up in the world and now gets daily press mentions as a presidential prospect in 2012, when he’d likely reprise his rivalry with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She gets the same mentions as Pawlenty, of course, and more. But unlike Pawlenty, who campaigned hard for McCain (and his own place on the ticket) in the weeks and months leading up to the Republican National Convention, Palin has already made a place for herself in the national media spotlight, where she’s paid her dues — if not her Neiman Marcus bills.