Obama aides fought over how to characterize the November 2008 meeting between the Bushes and Obamas at the White House. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Former President George W. Bush's friendly outreach to Michelle and Barack Obama after the 2008 election was met with a snarl from the incoming president's transition team and a harsh, "We don't need to be this nice," according to a newly leaked email from Obama's transition co-director John Podesta.
The fanged comment came in an email discussing a statement the Obama team planned to issue after the 2008 presidential victor and his wife met with Bush and wife Laura at the White House.
It was part of the email cache released by WikiLeaks.
The trail of emails among top Obama aides included a draft statement that thanked the Bushes for the invitation, and also gave some praise to Bush for working to dig the country out of the mortgage and housing mess that bruised his second term.
The draft statement read in part, "Finally, the President-Elect praised President Bush for his administration's work on the housing crisis and encouraged the President to try to identify further steps, using existing authority, to help struggling homeowners restructure their mortgages and stay in their homes."
Podesta responded, "We don't need to be this nice. He hasn't done nearly enough although they seemed poised to finally do more."
And his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, added, "Haven't gotten read out from obama but not sure how much we want to praise bush on the housing stuff - we certainly didn't do that in the campaign."
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com
Democrat scorched earth mentality: They have no intention of being bipartisan. The are out to rule over you.
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