Fiscal Summit Not Exactly a Hot Ticket By Kevin Spak Posted Feb 24, 2009 10:20 AM CST Copied House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer asks a question of President Obama at the close the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, Feb. 23, 2009, in the Old Executive Office Building at the White House. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) When President Obama announced his fiscal responsibility summit, it sounded like a momentous occasion. Turns out it was so momentous no one bothered to show up, Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post. Administration big-wigs like Paul Volcker and Leon Panetta skipped out on the panels they were supposed to moderate; Nancy Pelosi wandered in late; Harry Reid was MIA. The attendance list even came with excuses helpfully printed beside each name. Maybe, Milbank reasons, it’s because holding a “fiscal responsibility summit” in Washington these days is “a bit like having an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at a frat house,” or maybe it’s because the event was thrown together at the last minute. Obama didn’t get any decent recommendations (save David Obey’s that the president lock everyone in a room with some gin), but at the end he got some lavish, bipartisan butt-kissing, which is “almost as valuable.” Read These Next New Fox star, 23, misses first day after car troubles. White House rolls with Trump's 'daddy' nickname. Man accused of killing his daughters might be dead. Supreme Court ruling is a big blow to Planned Parenthood. Report an error