Panetta: "No reason" for Obama to walk away from shutdown talks
Leon Panetta, President Obama's former defense secretary and a former member of the House of Representatives, is blaming both the White House and Congress for the ongoing government shutdown.
"When you are operating by crisis, I think there's enough blame to go around," Panetta said Monday at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal. "Everybody has to engage, and engage - as I said - on the basis of trust. This town has gotten a lot meaner in the last few years."
Panetta, who left the Obama administration earlier this year, criticized the White House for its current attitude about negotiating with Republicans.
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"Just because you've engaged in some set of negotiations and they haven't gone anywhere... [that] is no reason to walk away from the table," he said. "In this town, you've got to stay with it and stay at it."
He added that while the president has the "right instincts about what needs to be done for the country," there should be more engagement between Mr. Obama and Republicans.
"You have to engage in the process," he said. "This is a town where it's not enough to feel you have the right answers. You've got to roll up your sleeves and you've got to really engage in the process . . . that's what governing is all about."
Panetta also blamed "extreme members of the House" upset over the implementation of Obamacare for deciding "to take out their vengeance on the American people and hurt their fellow citizens."
The former defense secretary cited several reasons for the current dysfunction in Washington, including a lack of resolve, from both parties, to sit down for real budget negotiations.
"I don't think they ought to try to come up with some razzle-dazzle super-committee or group of muckity-mucks from the outside world," he said. "That hasn't worked."
