Obama off the cuff

My big media, sort of cyber-buddy Mark Knoller catches Obama in an unguarded moment, listening in on a live audio feed at a recent fundraiser after the press was supposed to leave.

In the candid remarks, Mr. Obama complains of Republican attempts to attach measures to the budget bill which would have effectively killed parts of his hard-won health care reform program.

"I said, 'You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?'" recalled the president of his closed-door negotiations on the bill to fund the federal government until September.

Mr. Obama said he told House Speaker John Boehner and members of his staff that he'd spent a year and a half getting the sweeping health care legislation passed -- paying "significant political costs" along the way -- and wouldn't let them undo it in a six-month spending bill.

And speaking about the GOPers' attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.

"Put it in a separate bill," the president said he told Boehner and his staff. "We'll call it up. And if you think you can overturn my veto, try it. But don't try to sneak this through."

Also, contrary to the prevailing narrative, it appears our President isn't exactly clueless about the GOP's tactics. He told the donors "he expects Republicans to continue using that process to enact their political agenda under the guise of cutting spending." Seems to me just because he doesn't immediately join into the instant outrage at every misleading GOPer utterance, doesn't mean that he doesn't have a plan to counter it.

Update: More from Mark. Obama wants cooler phones too. Also in response to speculation on the internets about this story -- of course it's entirely possible Obama knew the mike was still live. But so what? It's not like he said something that wasn't true and it apparently won the news cycle today.