For Democrats, TGIF

President Obama And House Democrats’ Disastrous Week

• It’s finally Friday and Democrats couldn’t be more thankful.

• Whether it’s being called out for Obama’s misleading sequester claims, saying winning the House wasn’t a “focus” for the president, or facing the outrage over canceling White House tours, their week has just gotten progressively worse.

• With all this bad news, it’s no wonder that President Obama’s approval rating has plummeted.

Politico Reported That Democrats Worry The Obama Administration “Cried Wolf” On Sequester Cuts. “President Barack Obama hopes to spark a pitchfork revolt against Republicans over sequester-induced budget cuts — but many Democrats fret that he’s undermined that effort with an early strategy marred by hype, poor planning and muddled messaging.” (Glenn Thrush and Carrie Budoff Brown, “Now Dems Worry: Did President Obama Cry Wolf?” Politico, 3/6/13)

Four Pinocchios: Obama’s Claim That Reduced Overtime For White House Janitors Would Result In A De-Facto Pay Cut From His Sequester. (Glenn Kessler, “Capitol Janitors Making ‘Ends Meet’ With Overtime? Nope,” The Washington Post, 3/6/13)

Two Pinocchios: The Obama Administration’s Claim That Fewer Children Will Be Vaccinated Due To Obama’s Sequester.  (Glenn Kessler, “Sequester Spin: The White House’s Vaccine Statistics,” The Washington Post, 3/8/13)

Reports Show That The Obama Administration Told Government Officials To Make Their Departments’ Cuts As Painful As Possible—To Back Up Their Public Claims. “In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of. ‘We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that ‘APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.’ So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be,’ Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.” (Stephen Dinan, “Email Tells Feds To Make Sequester As Painful As Promised,” The Washington Times, 3/5/13)

National Review Online: “Obama Approval Rating Plummets” (Katrina Trinko, “Obama Approval Rating Plummets,” National Review Online, 3/6/13)

26 Democrat House Members Were Named To The DCCC’s Frontline Program Tuesday—Reserved For Their Most Vulnerable Incumbents. “More than half of the DCCC’s 26-member incumbent-protection program, announced today, are freshmen, including a handful of members who returned to the House this year after previously serving in Congress.” (Alex Roarty, “Dems Focus on Freshmen in Frontline Program,” National Journal, 3/5/13)

White House: Electing House Democrats “Not A Focus” Of Obama’s Right Now. “Wrangling with House Republicans over reducing the federal deficit hasn’t spurred President Barack Obama into early action helping fellow Democrats regain control of the chamber, the White House said Monday.” (Kevin Liptak, “WH: Electing House Dems ‘Not A Focus’ Of Obama’s For Now,” CNN, 3/4/13)

Blaming Obama’s Sequester—The White House Canceled Public Tours Indefinitely. “The White House is canceling tours of the president’s famous abode starting next week, saying the budget cuts that went into effect last week are to blame.” (Shawna Thomas and Kristen Welker, “White House Cancels Tours, Citing Sequester,” NBC News, 3/5/13)