WHITE HOUSE: Obama Is Not Going to 'Serve as the Speech Police for the Democratic Party'

By John Matthews, WMAL.com

A top aide to President Obama says Americans must decide for themselves how to be civil with each other  -- a rather sharp departure from comments that Obama has himself made in the past.

In an interview with the WMAL Morning Majority Wednesday, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said the Obama administration is not going to be drawn into the "gotcha game" of reacting to comments made by Teamsters President James Hoffa, Jr.  At a Labor Day rally in Detroit, Hoffa urged the President to use unions as his army to fight back against the Tea Party and  "take these son-of-a-bitches out."

Pfeiffer told WMAL that President Obama is not going to "serve as the speech police for the Democratic party."

"What everyone should do is make their best judgment of how they be civil," said Pfeiffer. "What I don't think makes sense is to distract from the major issues at hand to try to get everyone to go back and approve and disapprove of every single thing that every single person has said," he added.