THE CLOTHES HAVE NO EMPEROR:

White House is feeling weight of controversies surrounding oil spill, elections (Dan Balz, 6/03/10, Washington Post)

White House intervention in contested primaries has occurred during many presidencies and is rarely considered unusual or scandalous. What strikes Democratic allies of the White House is the administration's inability to keep its actions from blossoming into controversies and the evident lack of success by the president's advisers in working their will within the party.

"They don't have the leverage that past White House political operations have had," said one strategist who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation candidly. "They've tried to influence these races and nobody's listening. . . . A sitting president who arguably still had some political capital to spend was not able to prevent some pretty divisive primaries."

When the UR appears in public you almost expect to be able to see the tethers that keep him from floating away.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 4, 2010 6:04 AM