Spicer, Compared To The Others

Politico's Jack Shafer believes we should waste no energy sympathizing with Sean outgoing presidential press secretary Sean Spicer because

we find no Trump transgression so foul that Spicer would not grovel before it. When Trump praised North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and invited thuggish Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, Spicer dispensed sympathy and understanding upon the despots. No Trump mistake was too mundane for him to correct: He insisted that the word “covfefe,” which appeared in a late-night Trump tweet, wasn’t a typo. When Trump alluded to secret Trump-Comey audio recordings, Spicer dodged all questions about their existence. After the president claimed Obama had tapped his phones at Trump Tower, Spicer created a diplomatic incident by falsely accusing British intelligence of doing the snooping.

Spicer got off  to a bad start with

that first press briefing, in which he took no questions and made his ridiculous claims about the inauguration crowd size. Those claims, which we can assume were forced on him by the president, set him on a trajectory he never reversed.

Anthony Scaramucci, the incoming White House communications director, got off to a splendid start. Well-dressed, exquisitely polished, endlessly charming, with pitch-perfect delivery, Scaramucci declared in his first news conference

But here's what I tell you about the president: He's the most competitive person I've ever met. OK -- I've seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. I've seen him at Madison Square Garden with a topcoat on, he's standing in the key, and he's hitting foul shots and he's swishing them, OK? He sinks three-foot putts.

Obviously there's a lot of incoming that comes into the White House. But the president's a winner, OK? And what we're going to do is we're going to do a lot of winning.

He's the most competitive person I've ever met. OK -- I've seen this guy throw a dead spiral through a tire. I've seen him at Madison Square Garden with a topcoat on, he's standing in the key, and he's hitting foul shots and he's swishing them, OK? He sinks three-foot putts.






But the fellow who now swears the President is an uncommon mix of Stephen Curry, Mike Trout, and Dustin Johnson had once referred to Trump as an "odd guy," his campaign as a "spectacle," and Hillary Clinton as "incredibly competent."  So with an Alice In Wonderland quality, he tweeted "Full transparency: I'm deleting old tweets. Past views evolved & shouldn't be a distraction. I serve @POTUS agenda & that's all that matters,."

In the interest of "full transparency," he is erasing his past. The guy who is erasing past tweets also commented on Twitter "the politics of gotcha are over. I have a thick skin and we're moving on to @POTUS agenda & that's all that matters." He left out only "I have the thickest skin God ever created."  But in his news conference he had declared "the president's a winner, OK? And what we're going to do is we're going to do a lot of winning," and Donald Trump swooned.

We need not cry over Sean Spicer's demise. But Spicer has done what Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump publicly has regretted hiring, has not. He has done what Alternative Facts Conway, inventor of the Bowling Green massacre, has not. He has done what his colleague, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who "heard from a large number of individuals that work at the F.B.I." that they're happy James Comey was fired, has not done.  And he was never the complete and utter bootlicker Scaramucci obviously is.

He has quit. That's not much, and for all we know, he may turn into President Trump's greatest defender when he actually leaves the Administration. But probably not. And little as it is, a resignation is thus far one of the most courageous and sensible acts anyone in this regime has taken.





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