White House calls environmentalists "ridiculous," "silly," and not "serious" - equates them to GOPers

Welcome to the underside of the bus. From the NYT:

Finding a middle ground is difficult, especially in the midst of heated political wrangling over how to cope with the sputtering economy. Businesses are focusing almost entirely on the costs. Environmental groups, meanwhile, tally up the benefits without paying much heed to the costs.

“My view is that the Republican claim that ‘job-killing regulation’ is a redundancy is as ridiculous as the left-wing view that ‘job-killing regulation’ is an oxymoron,” said Cass Sunstein, head of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. “Both are silly political claims that have no place in a serious discussion.”

Then I hope the White House has a plan to replace those environmental voters next November (and I'm sure they do, this is all part of the "win the middle" strategy that has so far lost the White House the middle in poll after poll), because enviro votes are clearly not desired by a White House that finds environmentalists "left-wing," "ridiculous," "silly," and not "serious."

You can keep hoping and praying that the President will take you seriously, or you can get in his face like gay activists did when we found that our groups' strategy of playing nice was getting us nowhere.  This White House does not respect the Democratic base or core Democratic issues.  They only respect people who challenge them -- people who "take hostages," to quote the President.

Food for thought. Does anyone honestly think the President is going to be more helpful on any of our issues once he has the re-election under his belt and truly doesn't have to worry about how we'll vote ever again?

More food for thought, for those who might suggest we just let this slide.  If we let the White House keep criticizing Democrats in Congress and Democratic interest groups with impunity, if we let their ongoing criticism depress the Democratic vote and hurt the image of Democrats who are up for re-election (thus hurting their chances for re-election), our silence could ensure that Democrats lose next November.

It's not disloyal speaking up.  It's disloyal watching an electoral train wreck coming your way, and doing nothing about it.