Reince Priebus (Photo: YNN)
President Barack Obama’s vagueness on the issue of gay marriage is continuing to draw Republican ire this week, and during his interview on the Albany-based Capital Tonight earlier this evening, the head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, unloaded a barrage of additional criticism.
“I don’t know what the mystery is,” Mr. Priebus said, taping his side of the interview from Washington. “It’s actually just pathetic and silly at this point. I mean, he’s the President of the United States, what’s your darn position? Just say it and move on.”
Mr. Priebus went on to suggest Mr. Obama is trying to pull a fast one on the American public so that he can maintain the support of both socially conservative and socially liberal constituencies.
“For whatever reason, he thinks we’re either not paying attention or that everyone is so stupid that we can’t figure out what he’s up to,” he argued. “And what he’s up to is he wants the benefit of having no position of the subject so he can capture both sides of the issue.”
And then came the animal analogies. First was a comparison to the sea-dwelling jellyfish.
“Even if some people watching this might agree with him on some things, what people don’t appreciate is a jellyfish, and those are the types of people I think, in America, we’re all sort of sick and tired of,” he said. “I think that’s going to be a big problem for him moving forward.”
Mr. Priebus also declared Mr. Obama to be a “chicken” for keeping his position on the issue relatively ambiguous.
“We have to wait for some bulletin to figure out what the president’s positions are on major issues across America,” he said. “It’s a pretty chicken thing to do I think, and I think as President of the United States he ought to have enough guts to tell everyone what he thinks instead of playing games.”
While the line of attack isn’t especially unique compared to previous ones leveled against the president, it’s interesting that Mr. Priebus is emboldened enough to take the charges to Mr. Obama in pretty stark terms even in a state where gay marriage is already the law of the land.
Follow Colin Campbell on Twitter or via RSS. ccampbell@observer.com
