Leonard Pitts Jr.: Actually, there are no 'adults in the room' at the White House

[babylonsister]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-op-0913-pitts-nyt-20180912-story.html

Pitts: Actually, there are no 'adults in the room' at the White House
Trump responds to the anonymous op-ed claiming internal 'resistance'.
Leonard Pitts Jr.

snip//

Not shockingly, the essay landed on the White House like a bomb. In an angry tweet, Mr. Trump described the writer as "GUTLESS" and demanded that the Times, "for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!"

As if the First Amendment were repealed while we weren't looking. As if the Times has the writer stashed in a newsroom closet.

But at least Mr. Trump was unconflicted. Frankly, it was hard to know what to feel after reading this essay. Another way of describing a "two-track presidency," after all, is to say that America has undergone a de facto coup.

It's possible to be deeply concerned about that -- Just who's running this country? -- and yet grateful somebody is standing between us and Mr. Trump's meatheaded ideas. And it's possible to be both those things and yet appalled at this person's failure to be as large as the crisis demands.

To the contrary, he or she shows the jellyfish spine and bunny rabbit bravery common among Republicans these days. Real courage would've required the writer and the "many Trump appointees" he or she says are part of this to quit their jobs en masse, find a public forum and speak the obvious truth without hiding behind the cloak of anonymity. Namely, that this tantrum-throwing child is unfit to govern.

Instead, we get this anonymous rationalization. It impressed MSNBC host and former Republican Rep. Joe Scarborough, who wrote that we should be grateful to these people for stopping Mr. Trump from "creating an existential crisis for the country." Which is laughable. Mr. Trump is the existential crisis, but they're OK with trying to manage it from behind the scenes because tax cuts.

With apologies to James Comey, these people need to discover a higher loyalty. Until they do, the assurance they offer is empty.

There are no adults in that room.

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Scares me that rump used 'national security' as the reason for the writer of this essay ...

be turned over (to whom, eh, rump?...to your buddies to be beat up or worse?).

What other things will he invoke 'national security' should things go wrong elsewhere in his administration?

Or worse, what if there truly was a 'national security' issue that rump failed to call?

His failures are far worse than any so called accomplishments, being that (1) accomplishments aren't truly accomplishments (2) his failures are common knowledge to all, and will stick in his throat forever.

[struggle4progress]

2. "He's incompent and completely nuts! But we like his policies, except for the ones we don't like!

So we need to support him while we sneak around undermining him so he can do the wonderful things he does without driving the bus off a cliff! Just trust us!"

[gratuitous]

3. "Bunny rabbit bravery"

Good, but I like "chihuahua courage" better. The yappy little dog that barks ferociously until you actually turn to look at it. The barks turn to yips and it runs behind the nearest obstacle like it was scalded. Pitts' proposed solution (the alleged adults quit en masse, and speak out) would be far more effective in turning public opinion. But that would also require some bravery and a smidgen of personal integrity. And I've seen none of that lately out of the White House.