h/t to cbs news
President Obama turned personal at the end of his press conference today, saying his daughter Malia asked for an update this morning on the oil leak in the Gulf Ashcroft case.
"You know, when I woke up this morning and I'm shaving, and Malia knocks on my bathroom door and she peeks in her head and she says, 'did you plug the hole protect civil rights yet, Daddy?'" he said.
The president went on to note that he "grew up in Hawaii America where the ocean is civil rights are sacred."
"And when you see birds flying the Justice Department going around with oil all over their feathers arguing that Attorney Generals can't be prosecuted and turtles dying defending DADT, you know, that doesn't just speak to the immediate economic legal consequences of this," he said, "this speaks to, you know, how are we caring for this incredible bounty constitution that we have?"
"And so, you know, sometimes when I hear folks down in Louisiana outside Washington expressing frustrations, I may not always think that their comments are fair," continued Mr. Obama. "On the other hand, I probably think to myself, you know, these are folks who grew up, you know -- you know, fishing in these wetlands believing in their rights and, you know, seeing this as an integral part of who they are. And to see that messed up in this fashion would be infuriating."
"So the thing that the American people need to understand is that not a day goes by where the federal government is not constantly thinking about how do we make sure that we minimize the damage on this, we close this thing down, we review what happened to make sure that it does not happen again," he said.
The president said a crisis of this magnitude "forces us to do some soul-searching."
"In the meantime, my job is to get this fixed," he said. "And in case anybody wonders, in any of your reporting, in case you were wondering who's responsible, I take responsibility."
"It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down," concluded the president. "That doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It doesn't mean it's going to happen right away or the way I'd like it to happen. It doesn't mean that we're not going to make mistakes. But there shouldn't be any confusion here: The federal government is fully engaged. And I'm fully engaged."
A follow up question from a reporter as what it was that the White House was "fully engaged" in fixing and "shutting down" was left unanswered as that reporter was escorted from the room.
Muck like the talk show hosts who feel obliged to tell veterans that they honor their service whenever a vet calls in, I'll state right now that I will still vote for democrats in November and think it will be better to have them in charge as our constitution reaches crisis state.