When the ship starts sinking, the rats start jumping.
In politics, when a party or movement is soundly demolished at the polls, you can expect to see stalwarts flake off and go the way of the opposition, or “their own way.”
But the honorable time to do that is before the insider position becomes untenable. Not after.
Late timing smacks of opportunism.
Case in point: Karine Jean-Pierre, former Press Secretary to President Joe Biden.
Ms. Jean-Pierre was the African-American woman hired to obfuscate for the Democrat cabal who ran the federal government’s executive wing while the Man Sworn In was out — to lunch.
Now she’s formally left the Democratic Party and is shilling a book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, scheduled for publication this fall. It sports a great cover.
Like CNN’s Jake Tapper, Jean-Pierre focuses on a critical period in Joe Biden’s administration. “She takes us through the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision,” her publisher blurbles.
Also like Tapper, she has no standing to preach any virtuous sermons on verity or clarity or even non-insularity. She was absolutely in the thick of Democratic insider corruption.
Her spin is in her title: she’s going independent, not switching sides.
“I think we need to stop thinking in boxes and think outside of our boxes,” she posts on Instagram, “and not be so partisan.”
Now that her PR for her president’s party has been repudiated.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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2 replies on “Rats A‑Jumpin’”
I’m reminded of Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, senior US military officer in Iraq, compelled to retire in the wake of the scandal of Abu Ghraib. He tried to reposition himself as a critic of US war-policy in Iraq, but nobody wanted him.
Democratic leaders want l’affaire Biden forgot as quickly as possible, and that means banishing to the wilderness people who will be remembered by the public for their rôles in the scandal. While many members of the ruling class who have been aligned with the Democratic Party might want to jettison much of the baggage of the Democratic Party by creating a new vehicle, they would have a hard time making the AstroTurf® seem to grow from grassroots; and, anyway, Ms Jean-Pierre would bring some of that baggage with her and therefore not be much welcomed into the new party.
If the various stooges such as Ms Jean-Pierre are successfully to rebrand themselves, then they need to retreat for a matter of years, during which they are silent expect for occasionally expressions of humility. After that, they can offer books filled with spiritual platitudes.
Anyone care to guess who will be buying these books by the caseloads?
*IT AIN’T US*.