Stop holding your breath, folks: It’s become clear that President Barack Obama has absolutely no intention of putting Taxation Without Representation license plates on his limousine.

ABC News reporter Yunji de Nies got Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the record at this afternoon’s press briefing:

de Nies : On sort of a D.C. issue — and that is: What hasn’t the president changed his license plate on the presidential limousine? Is he planning to change them for the “taxation without representation” plates?

GIBBS: I think rather than change the logo around the license plate, the president is committed instead to changing the status of the District of Columbia.

de Nies : But that is a symbol, though, that a lot of people look at as…

GIBBS: Right. I guess I would ask you to ask people in Washington whether they’d like to have that status changed, or that symbolism screwed onto the back of a limousine?

Thanks for that triumphal moment of political gutlessness there, Gibbsy—-as though license plate vs. actual voting rights happens to be an either/or proposition. You know, ’cause your boss has done so much to “have that status changed.” Sheesh—-the license plate at least would have been an easy down payment.

Says WTOP’s Mark Plotkin, who has long lobbied for the stamped-metal gesture, “I don’t know how they could manage to insult us even more, but Gibbs managed to do it.”