Obama's Press Secretary Talks Himself Into PR Crisis

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, who irritated fellow Democrats recently by saying Republicans might reclaim control of the House in November, is once again in hot water with his own party, after lambasting President Obama’s critics on what he called “the professional left.’’

In an interview with The Hill newspaper, published Tuesday, Mr. Gibbs unloaded his frustration with liberals who are themselves frustrated with the president.

“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested – I mean, it’s crazy,’’ Mr. Gibbs was quoted in the newspaper as saying.

He went on to condemn the “professional left,’’ saying: “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.’’

Mr. Gibbs’ remarks raced around the blogosphere and dominated much of the daily White House briefing, which was conducted Tuesday by his deputy, Bill Burton, who explained that the press secretary had a sore throat.

Mr. Burton did not back away from his boss’s comments. But he conceded that people inside the White House – the president included – are sometimes frustrated with press coverage of Mr. Obama’s initiatives, and suggested that this frustration accounted for Mr. Gibbs’s remark.

As to just who constitutes the “professional left,’’ Mr. Burton said, “I think he was just talking about folks who mostly live in this town and talk on cable TV.”