Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson

She was "sexy", but "too much hard work." I'm a regular Fox & Friends viewer (mostly in protest of the other insipid morning programs like Today and Good Morning America) so over the years I've gotten to know Gretchen Carlson pretty well. Stuck between Steve and Brian she always seemed a prudish scold with an irritating, self-righteous demeanor that I simply put up with because I figured some people in the Fox audience actually liked her persona. It was obvious that Steve and Brian did not, but they were stuck with her like so many talking heads and had to make the best of it - which they did. Besides, she was no worse than any of the other women on morning show TV - I mean, you're only going to find a certain kind of person to do this kind of work and that kind of person is the Gretchen Carlson kind. Then, one day, she was gone and replaced by Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the F&F ratings began to climb, and climb and climb - in two months view
1 comment
Read more

Psycho Killer, qu'est-ce?

I came into this wicked world in the early 1960's and as a result I have born witness to America's 50 Years of Failure which includes the modern age of mass shootings by psychotic men who "go off" on a given day, for no reason at all (except "guns"), and kill scads of innocent bystanders. Back in August of 2019 a KOTCB blog post titled " Reciprocity City " explored a young  gunman  named Patrick Crusius  who drove 9 hours through the west Texas flatlands to shoot up El Paso, TX The KOTCB has commented on many of these shootings, bombings and knifings over the years -  The roots of the Boston Marathon Bombing ,  the Emanuel AME Church shooting ,  Syed Rizvan Farook and his bride Tashfeen Malik ,  Ft. Lauderdale Airport shooting ,  Nick Cruz lovesick Parkland shooting ,  the Iranian, PETA activist, Vegan Bodybuilder, YouTuber's attack on Google  and now this very oddly timed and placed "lone wolf" attack on Walmart shoppers. This list
Post a Comment
Read more

Who voted for this guy?

Who voted for this guy? It's been ten days since the results of the Maricopa County, Arizona ballot audit were released to the public and presented at a hearing held by the state senate. This exercise in democratic accountability had been going on for months and, if reports are to be believed, was completed well over a  month before the September 24th hearing where   overwhelming proof of an illegitimate election was presented to lawmakers . The audit showed multiple irregularities, fake ballots, duplicate counts, errors, omissions and egregious acts of sabotage and obstinance by the Maricopa County board of supervisors who did everything they could to withhold and destroy evidence of wrongdoing from the citizen sleuths. The misfeasance of Arizona's political leaders was clearly defined, shocking and (for some) beyond belief but somehow these facts were discovered, organized, packaged and suppressed for MONTHS by the Cyber Ninjas who were attempting to "get to the bottom&q
2 comments
Read more