Thoroughly Unclean

47th US President Donald J Law Abider insists that Roger Clemens should be allowed into the Baseball Hall of Fame because allegations of his PED use remain unproven. 47th US President Donald J Due Process Respecter insists that Lisa Cook of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors resign her position due to thus far unproven allegations of mortgage fraud. 

There's no need to waste time reconciling these two contradictory positions. They are perfectly consistent and expected considering the source. For small minds, it boils down to whom they like, and whom they dislike. President Doofus likes Clemens and dislikes Cook. 

In addition to the obvious perils of electing a whiny, petulant, vindictive hammerhead to one of the world's most powerful positions, a staff of sycophantic buffoons has exposed a flaw in the American political system. Let Presidents hire more or less whoever they want emerged as the default standard decades ago, based on the not unreasonable notion that if voters trust the candidate to perform the job, the candidate should also be trusted to recruit qualified staff. With occasional exceptions--see Tower, John, 1989--Presidents are given wide leeway when selecting their crew. The present President, Donald J Praise Me, values obsequious loyalty over competence, independence or objectivity, and surrounds himself with enablers. 

One of those enablers, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte, has referred two Presidential critics--California Congressman Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James--to the Justice Department for alleged mortgage fraud, in addition to the aforementioned Lisa Cook, who has never openly spoken out against President Hypersensitive. It is unfortunate that Pulte has put himself in this position because he joined the administration as one of the few individuals who had ever done any good in the world. Unlike lifelong poisonous hack Stephen Miller, or grossly unqualified Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Pulte's track record combating blight in Michigan earned him bipartisan praise, even if some politicians, like Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, didn't care for Pulte's style and considered him a grandstander. 

Now, however, Pulte has embraced the role of underhanded enforcer. He's nothing like NBA legend Maurice Lucas, who had talent and would confront you face to face. Pulte behaves more like the fictional Charles Augustus Milverton, a Sherlock Holmes character who dug up dirt on his enemies, based loosely on the real life art dealer Charles Howell. Needless to say, the Director of the FHFA should not be referring President Veiled Threat's political adversaries for criminal charges, regardless of their guilt or innocence. It would be an astonishing coincidence indeed if only these three individuals made questionable mortgage deals. 

The problem, as ever, is smallness. Mental and emotional smallitude are not synonymous with weak intelligence. Smart, small minded people, for instance, undercut the career of British chemist Rosalind Franklin. Still, the combination of ignorance and puny vindictiveness can prove particularly hazardous to societies at large, as it were. 

It will take years to wash off the filth of this era, and even that won't happen unless enough of us want to. Better abolish the soap tariffs ASAP.