The Leaves Have It

By GAIL COLLINS
NYT

Notes from the Age of Obama:

Members of the still-not-in-power administration traveled to the Capitol this week to allow Senate Democrats to complain about the upcoming stimulus package. The Obama-ites were extremely eager to listen. After all, senators have feelings, too.

“These folks are not potted plants,” said the senior adviser David Axelrod.

Already we have a big break with the past. The Bush White House so totally regarded senators as potted plants that it was a wonder that senior aides didn’t attempt to water them. Democrats believed that Dick Cheney had a large chart in which legislators were identified by which type of household foliage they most resembled. (Harry Reid was a ficus.) But no more.

Barack Obama is going to change the tone of Washington politics. He promised. Of course George W. Bush promised that, too. But once his administration ran into resistance in Congress, the Era of Good Feeling was out the door and the potted-plant index was in. (John Kerry was a begonia.)

(More here.)