wut https://t.co/HibWX14HTn pic.twitter.com/DipvBeevUH
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) July 21, 2017
Jeb Lund:
Maybe White House press secretary Sean Spicer cast his eyes toward the horizon and saw that the sky looked like it was going to rain indictments. Maybe the word “dignity” came up recently in his word of the day calendar. Either way, he’s gone…
Spicer’s planned demotion would be enough to make you feel pity for him — if you ignored everything else about Spicer and his job. After Spicer’s foully contemptuous and bullying introduction to the nation’s press, nothing was more appealing in some quarters than flirting with pity for the man whose boss undercut him repeatedly. That sort of light comedy is always entertaining for people — like the White House press corps — who would never truly be imperiled by what Spicer promoted and defended. Games are fun when you aren’t going to die…
The story he probably won’t tell his kids is this: Before taking the White House press secretary position, their dad was the Republican Party’s communications director for six years. His entire professional utility was and is his ability to tell lies to people, and his goal was telling more, better lies for progressively more important people until he could retire at 55 with a multimillion-dollar nest egg…
Their dad was vicious, lying scum, and the fact that his old boss and his new boss are worse doesn’t obviate his complicity in trying to destroy the very baseline idea of shared reality in service of a vain and cancerous meringue sowing fear and uncertainty among the citizenry, when his policies don’t merely immiserate or kill them. Their dad carried water for the worst president in American history, and now that the investigations are drawing further into the White House, Spicer can bail out and blame his new boss for wrecking the plane. Let it never be said that, when times got tough, their dad was just a liar: He was also a chickenshit…
Spicer told a friend the off-cam briefings were less abt dinging press than giving Trump a target to shoot at https://t.co/nGdyje2dNX
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 22, 2017
In other words, it wasn’t Spicer (or Trump) trying to punish the press; it was about Spicer trying to avoid being punished by his babyman boss. SAD!
1 personal thing about Sean: he's a thoroughly decent person. We've had our strong disagreements but he's one of the good guys in politics. https://t.co/81HeqSDx9V
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) July 21, 2017
Lying to the American people for a paycheck is the most thoroughly decent thing a man can do
— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) July 21, 2017
Sean Spicer is doomed to wander the Earth, getting owned by rude teens as he goes
— Justice for Lamby (@BobbyBigWheel) July 22, 2017
At the end of the day we're all Americans and someone has to flack for shitbirds because PR is an important and not invented calling
— Mark Agee (@MarkAgee) July 21, 2017
The Hill is full of guys like Spicer. All so terrified of growing old in the Kansas 45th that they'll sell granny for a seat at the table.
— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) January 22, 2017
Jack Shafer, at Politico — ” Should You Feel Sorry for Sean Spicer? Nope. Absolutely not.”:
The White House attracts all manner of toadies, suckups and flatterers seeking the president’s favor, but never did any staffer demean, degrade and humble himself to the chief executive the way outgoing press secretary Sean Spicer did. Abandoning the arts of both persuasion and elision that have served previous prevaricating press secretaries so well, Spicer flung barb-tongued lies in the service of President Donald Trump.
Starting with Trump’s inauguration weekend, which Spicer declared “was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” through last week, when he lied that Donald Trump Jr.’s Russian meeting was about “adoptions,” Spicer never failed to fib when a fib would serve the president. Had Spicer’s White House Briefing Room comments been sworn testimony, he would face so many years in prison for perjury that a dozen Trump pardons couldn’t secure his freedom…
What thanks did Spicer earn for his months of debasement in service to Trump? The early and steady drumbeat from the Oval Office that the president was “disappointed” in his performance, as CNN’s Jim Acosta reported in early February, and never-ending whispers that he would soon be sacked, which finally came true today. He gave Trump the red blood of his undying loyalty. Trump gave him the pink slip…
Someone is going to sign a ten million dollar book deal contingent on delivering the goods. pic.twitter.com/DxewlotaRV
— Schooley (@Rschooley) July 21, 2017
I hope Spicer titles his book "I REALLY WANTED TO MEET THE FUCKING POPE"
— Jesse Berney (@jesseberney) July 21, 2017
Well played, @dailybeast https://t.co/fNv7IWXigF
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 21, 2017
Gian
Spicer is gone not because of the national media, he’s gone because Trump wanted him out for his inability to lie with sufficient conviction
Major Major Major Major
I still like Pelosi’s response best. “I don’t care.”
Mnemosyne
I’m reading that first story and thinking, “Why didn’t he just order a damn mini-fridge of his own on Amazon? They’re only $100. Cheap asshole.”
SWMBO
Dammit! I’m going to miss Melissa McCarthy.
Ghost of Joe Lieblings Dog
@Gian:
Poor Spicey – it must have been hard to lie with sufficient conviction with Trump not yet sufficiently convicted.
TriassicSands
I just watched — for the first time* — Gerald Ford’s announcement of his decision to pardon Nixon. Unbelievable! It was more like a religious sermon than a presidential act. God this. God that. Humble servant, blah, blah, blah.
I think it set a terrible precedent that has made it harder than ever to hold a president accountable for wrongdoing.
* I spent the entire summer that year (’74) backpacking and rockclimbing in mountain ranges of Wyoming, Montana, and California. I heard about Nixon’s resignation weeks after it happened when I emerged from a long trek through the backcountry of Glacier National Park. In September, when Ford issued the pardon, I was back in the mountains, that time the Sierras.
TriassicSands
@SWMBO:
What are the chances SNL will have Spicey host next season? Poor, I hope.
jl
@Mnemosyne: That was the first thing that came to my mind when I read it. Just click on Amazon. If he really needed it the same damn day he could have called a local appliance store. Weird.
I guess taking other people’s stuff just comes so naturally to that crowd they don’t even think twice about it.Even if a click or a phone call is easier than stealing it and having to lug it yourself.
I read and heard several reporters and media news celebrity talkers and pundit types lamenting that Spicer had a good reputation of being an honest, straight-forward stand-up reliable sort of PR person before he took the WH job under Trump. Really? I find that hard to believe. Maybe that is more a comment on what ‘honest’ and ‘straight-forward’ means in their world.
Seems like a lot more fuss about his change in PR than in previous administrations, particularly Obama’s. I think during Obama years, the president just showed up at a presser and said a few words, introduced the new person and that was about it. I guess most of the action was off camera when they passed around punch and some cupcakes.
But we are back to Kremlinology and the palace intrigue of debauched and deranged European royalty now.
NotMax
Diogenes weeps.
Major Major Major Major
@jl:
Add to this that taking things from others is actually something they enjoy and you got the attitude.
Unknown known
@TriassicSands: he wasn’t as colourful as Palin.
And he won’t be as topical.
Redshift
More weirdness: the fridge Spicer stole may have belonged to Kal Penn. No, really.
https://twitter.com/kalpenn/status/888782747065626624
TriassicSands
Nope. If you widen the pool beyond “staffer(s)” to cabinet secretaries, then almost every one of them surpassed or at least equaled Spicer’s performance. And Kellyanne Conway has certainly equaled Spicer (wherever she is these days).
Spicey was bad, but he has so much company.
Let’s see, we have:
The worst press secretary ever.
The worst Secretary of Education ever.
The worst Interior Secretary (tie with James Watt).
The worst EPA head ever (another tie, with Anne Gorsuch).
Probably the worst HUD Secretary ever (if he ever does anything).
Possibly the most ineffectual Secretary of State ever.
The worst Renaissance Man ever (Jared).
Probably the worst Chief of Staff ever (Reince).
Oh, and I almost forgot, The Worst President Ever.
Who am I missing?
Villago Delenda Est
@Major Major Major Major: Pelosi, I think, saw Maxine Water’s response (about Sean being more courageous than Jeff Sessions) and thought to herself, “Hey, if Maxine can throw shade, I can!”
Anne Laurie
@jl:
To be fair, when I first read this anecdote, I remembered that Spicer’s still a Navy Reservist. There’s a certain folklore that Navy guys, from a habit of being isolated way out in the ocean, tend to be more… how to phrase it… self-sufficient than some branches. This is good when it comes to kludging equipment repairs rather than waiting for replacements; maybe not so good if it leads to a habit of petty pilfering in a zero-sum environment.
(Hasty sidebar that this is all “stuff I’ve read/heard”, not something I’d present as fact!)
Villago Delenda Est
@TriassicSands: That little exercise in whatever it is you want to call it compelled Gerald terHorst, Ford’s first press secretary, to resign immediately. He was replaced by Ron Nessen.
jl
@Anne Laurie: Second thing I thought was, well I guess that is what passes for life in a Trump organization. The top and terrific Trump administration couldn’t get their people decent work areas? Was this around the time that they couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights at the WH?
jl
@TriassicSands: Worst presidential nepotism ever.
And regarding Trump himself, the worst, and most incompetent, presidential lying ever.
That is not about staff, but I had to mention it.
jl
On The Decay Of The Art Of Lying
Observe, I do not mean to suggest that the _custom_ of lying has
suffered any decay or interruption–no, for the Lie, as a Virtue, A Principle,
is eternal; the Lie, as a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the
fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man’s best and surest friend, is immortal, and
cannot perish from the earth… My complaint simply
concerns the decay of the _art_ of lying. No high-minded man, no man of right
feeling, can contemplate the lumbering and slovenly lying of the present day
without grieving to see a noble art so prostituted.
Mark Twain
John Revolta
@Major Major Major Major: This.
It’s not enough to have something. Someone else has to go without.
NotMax
@jl
They’re ‘the help’ and therefore unworthy of concern, undeserving of consideration and ultimately fungible commodities.
TriassicSands
@Unknown known:
True, but it would give them a way to have McCarthy back on playing Spicer.
NotMax
@NotMax
For the sake of better clarity –
In Dolt 45 land, they’re ‘the help’ and therefore unworthy of concern, undeserving of consideration and ultimately fungible commodities, disposable as Kleenex.
jl
@TriassicSands: We could get up a mass public appeal demanding that Spicer get the job back so McCarthy can make fun of him on SNL. Kind of like one of those campaigns to keep a TV show on the air.
Wouldn’t work, but it would bug the hell out of the Drumpf, so I like the idea.
But, the end of Spicey, when you combine with the onset of the Joker, I mean, Scaramouche would make a good skit. So we might see that. I got no clue who is smarmy enough to play the WH PR Joker.
TriassicSands
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s funny, I’ve always tried to stay well-informed politically, but that summer, one of the most consequential in our history, I missed everything — at least as it happened.
I still remember being told that Nixon had resigned. I couldn’t believe it, but I was unbelievably happy.
Shalimar
@jl: James Spader.
Aleta
I watched that first press briefing Spicer gave. Came out just rude and yelling and lying up and down. He even said “at the CIA the employees were ecstatic, and he delivered them a powerful and important message: he told them, he has their back. They gave him a five-minute standing ovation.” ho ho ho.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: Ron Ziegler: a man who Twain might admire.
Sean Spicer: A man Twain would hold in contempt.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
This is just to say
Fuck the plums
Who eats fruit anyway?
I have taken the icebox
Major Major Major Major
@Shalimar: ohh, he’d be good but is he too old?
Joyce Harmon
I think the mini-fridge incident is a perfect little vignette to explain how Spicer lasted as long as he did. He got, at an instinctive level, the whole basis of Trumpism and how to apply it to his own life – steal from people who have less than you do.
sm*t cl*de
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Plz tweet this.
sm*t cl*de
You don’t need to outrun the bear; you only need to
run faster thanfocus the bear’s attention on some other punching-bag.I am amused by the thought that the first priority of Spicer’s working day was how to redirect his boss’ tantrums in some other direction.
George_Spiggot
@jl:
Jon Heder.
BTW, it’s a beautiful morning in Primosten, Croatia. On my way now to Zadar.
JPL
@jl: Spicer could be the host, and Melissa McCarthy could play the role of Sarah Huckabee
Sanders. Melissa could easily play Sarah.
Alain the site fixer
@George_Spiggot: do send pictures and steer clear of the fires!
bystander
@Major Major Major Major:
After a day of being treated by Trump like a necessary carbuncle, Spicey needed to take out his frustration on those lower on the ladder because he could.
Iowa Old Lady
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: This made me literally LOL. William Carlos Williams probably did too, in a ghostly kind of way.
Jean
@Iowa Old Lady: I laughed too. Love WCW, and there are some other published parodies of his work. Should include this one.
Chris
@TriassicSands:
It’s two precedents in combination, I think: 1) Ford pardoning Nixon and 2) BlowjobGate in the nineties, which established that impeachment was a partisan farce (giving cover to future presidents who might need to be impeached).
Rugosa
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Bravo!
Frankensteinbeck
Spicer lied enough, but didn’t flatter Trump enough. Scurry Muchly is a champion of sucking up to Trump, describing him in even more glowing terms than Trump describes himself.
@jl:
It means that they either agree with Republican bullshit that justifies hurting the weak, or they merely consider those arguments to be perfectly reasonable. You can throw in a dash of ‘It’s all a game and he’s never lied to me personally.’
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TriassicSands:
I don’t think Ford’s pardon makes any difference with Trump – Trump was to stoned in the 70s what ever he claims and his courtiers are only going to say what Trump wants to hear.
Uncle Cosmo
A former journalist who still has contacts in the field told me that there was general sympathy (among a profession not known for sympathy) for Spicer, a devout Roman Catholic, when the traveling White House cut him out of the audience with the Pope. Apparently that degree of sheer personal brutality disturbed even people who routinely trample the powerless in pursuit of a story.
I was inclined to sympathize as well – before reading about the mini-fridge. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. (Or perhaps, Never get petty with people who buy pettiness by the cubic mile.)
leeleeFL
@TriassicSands: When I watched Ford pardon Nixon, I said to my Mom, ” We just watched that man commit political suicide. I wonder what they’re covering up?”? She just nodded and smiled.
If we had prosecuted Nixon, maybe no Reagan, no Bush, no Shrub, certainly, no Trump.
Always knew it was a mistake.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TriassicSands: Flint, the worst ever National Security Director.
debbie
@Gian:
I’ve read that Trump was surprised at Spicer’s quitting. I think he wanted to keep him around for the abusing factor.
leeleeFL
@Uncle Cosmo: Sean Spicer is a venal little crumb, someone should remind him that sympathy is in the dictionary. Stealing a gift from a previous aide is lower than snake shit. Buy your own, you miserable excuse for a person of importance. Maybe the Pope didn’t want him there, ever think of that possiblity?
germy
Villago Delenda Est
@Uncle Cosmo: NO ONE associated with the Donald Disaster, to include the enablers at the NYT (particularly the Haberman and Thrush hacks) can come out of this professionally alive or otherwise.
germy
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t know. Newspaper and media executives are like cats. They always land on their feet and they have nine lives.
Some NYTimes copy editors and lowly reporters get buyouts. Support staff is laid off. But the top dogs will stay in place and prosper, just like the big names (Brooks, etc.) they hire.
Citizen_X
@Redshift: Sequel time! Harold and Kumar Get Their Goddam Fridge Back.
cmorenc
@Mnemosyne:
This incident, where a wealthy, powerful man deliberately and greedily takes something valuable and important away from little people to their great inconvenience, that the man could easily have obtained elsewhere at relatively little cost to himself – speaks volumes about the colossal asshole that is at the core of his character, stripped of any shred of weak excuse of his job sometimes necessitating his actions. Snatching that fridge from the workers was a bullying dominance display and cowardly at the same time – when they firmly protested his taking the fridge to his face for reasons anyone with an ounce of consideration for others would have sympathetically understood and deferred to, Spicer couldn’t let being refused permission to grab the fridge go and get the fridge from elsewhere – no he had to snatch it from them behind their backs in the dead of night, nyaa nyaa let’s see you chumps dare to try to take this bone away from the big dog now. Geez, what a shitheel.
raptusregailter
I wonder if Spicey also took all the food inside the fridge. Oh wait. He’s a republican. Of course he did. (and then simply trashed anything that didn’t appeal to him)
Jack the Second
@Mnemosyne: A quick search on the DC Craigslist reveals you can get a used mini fridge for $20.
randy khan
@JPL:
I was thinking that initially, but it seems kind of on the nose.
randy khan
@germy:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
I mean, it’s possible it’s true, in that Trump probably would have enjoyed Spicer’s continuing humiliation, but the idea that Trump really cared one way or another about Spicer is ludicrous.
sdhays
I wish the press would stop using the Russian euphemism for what they talk to everyone about. The American government has erected no impediments to adopting Russian children, and Russians aren’t trying to adopt American children. There’s nothing to discuss. If Russia wants Americans to adopt their orphans, then they have absolute power to do that.
When they say they discussed “Russian adoption”, they mean they actually discussed lifting sanctions. Every time “Russian adoption” is brought up, it’s the duty of the press to make this clear. The average American would justified in being perplexed as to why discussing Russian adoption would be controversial or even of critical importance to the Russian government. The sanctions are crucial to understanding what’s being reported, but I feel the press just assumes that since they’ve reported that somewhere that “everybody knows”.
They don’t. It needs to be connected over and over again.
sdhays
@debbie: I feel like Trump is surprised by almost everything nowadays. Being stupid and probably suffering from dementia will do that.
Amis J
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: This. Is. Perfect.
nightranger
This reminds me of my favorite line from Lolita.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
I noticed Shafer has become less relentlessly awful ever since being forcibly assigned the weekly recap articles.
WaterGirl
@randy khan: Why is spicer staying through August if he already quit?
Marvel
@jl: SNL Scaramucci: Zoolander (Ben Stiller)?
J R in WV
@TriassicSands:
Don’t forget Wilbur the Billionaire at Secretary of Commerce, also former head of a bank in Cyprus thought to have been deeply involved in laundering Russian money that really needed the cleaning.