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What's in a name?

The job of White House Press Secretary came into it's own with the New Deal and the centralization of civic life in Washington DC. The clapping seals who bark into the nationwide corporate megaphone needed to be fed and the press secretary carries a bucket of fish. The names of these fellows reflect the executive branch for which they serve. FDR had Stephen Early, Truman had Roger Tubby, leave it to JFK to hire a guy named Pierre for the job, LBJ had Bill Moyers (which deserves it's own blog posting - maybe some other day) but the names really start getting interesting in the 70's:
Ron Ziegler - German for brick-maker was the perfect guy for Nixon and, correctly in my view, pleaded with Nixon not to resign but fight on and let him handle the "nattering nabobs of negativism" who wanted blood.
Jody Powell - Of course Jimmy Peanut had a Press Secretary named Jody (he was a man BTW).
James Brady (shot in head) followed by Larry Speaks and then Marlin Fitzwater which congers up the image of a large thrashing fish hooked and getting reeled in.
Joe Lockhart - was the perfect name for a Press Secretary during the Monica years
Ari Fleischer - Yiddish for butcher
Scott McClellan - endorsed BHO in 2008 (that's about all you need to know)
Tony Snow - What I had assumed would go down in history as the greatest Press Secretary name of all time - I mean, how are you going to beat a name that basically screams "snowjob"?
Robert Gibbs - rymes with glib.
Jay Carny - as in, carnival barker.

All good and some of them outstanding names for a press hack to shill executive talking points, but we are now witnessing the acme of Press Secretary behavior delivered by a man with the greatest Press Secretary name of all time and, unless there's some guy out in the world named Bald Faced Liar, the title will be held by Josh Earnest forever.


Right, poor Rudy, Josh feels really sad about it all.
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