The Mark of Klain

WFB ^ | 21 July 2021 | Matthew Continetti

[Rummyfan]

On August 8 the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, turns 60 years old. It is, writes Mark Leibovich of the New York Times, a much-anticipated event on the D.C. social calendar. Klain, you see, has commemorated earlier "round-numbered birthdays" by throwing large, sumptuous "blowouts," including a fête at a Maryland farm in 2011 where hundreds of VIPs gathered to eat deep-fried Oreos and deliver "tributes to the honoree."

Everyone who was anyone in Barack Obama's Washington was there. One's absence signified one's exclusion from the tribe. To know Ron Klain, then, is to have entered the power elite. "Plans for his 60th," Leibovich continues, "have become such a source of Beltway status anxiety that a small universe of Washington strivers is angling for details: Some have asked White House contacts whether a celebration is in the works and if invitations have gone out."

Needless to say, I don't expect to be invited. Nor is there anything wrong with Klain throwing himself a bash: Having just celebrated a "round-numbered" birthday myself, I can attest that there is nothing more fun than gathering a bunch of your family and friends in one place for an evening of food and drink (and more drink).

What struck me instead as I read Leibovich's slightly tongue-in-cheek profile was the distance between the bourgeois comfort of Klain's personal and professional life and the facts, as they say, on the ground. One cannot finish reading the Leibovich piece without coming to the conclusion that, all in all, things have worked out pretty darn well for Ron Klain. For America? Not so much.

Klain is the most powerful chief of staff in recent memory, the beating heart of Joe Biden's White House...

[Rummyfan]

Recent days have offered plenty of evidence of just how good it is to orbit President Biden. The lobbying firm of Steve Ricchetti's brother Jeff saw a quadruple increase in fees between the first half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. So far this year, Ricchetti Inc. has taken in $1.67 million. "I do not lobby my brother, nor have I lobbied the White House this quarter," Jeff Ricchetti said in an email to the paper, in one of the most cleverly constructed sentences I have read in a long time.

Surely Jeff Ricchetti understands that Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti is not the only employee of the executive branch, that "lobbying" is an amorphous term, that the "White House" or Executive Office of the President is just one of innumerable executive and legislative bodies that make policy, and that "this quarter" is only the third of four per year. What did he do in the first two?

And I thought the Clintons were the pinnacle - or nadir - of corruption....

[DFG]

“Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” Harry Truman

[Regulator]

Finally the power behind the throne is being talked about.

Klain’s gang is running the country, and stole the election.

Fat SOB should be behind bars.

[2harddrive]

Benedict Biden: THAT’S HIS NAME!

Destroying America: THAT’S HIS GAME!!

[Eagles6]

Yep.

[frank ballenger]

When I ask here “If Biden is befuddled and not actively calling for agenda items to be carried out, then who is behind the scenes as a handler giving him executive orders to sign?”

Most said Klain.