Step down or we’ll push ya
You can’t fire us, we’re incompetent!
The White House confirmed on Wednesday that 11 Trump appointees to military service academy advisory boards, among them former press secretary Sean Spicer and adviser Kellyanne Conway, were asked to step down – or be fired.
Imagine putting Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway on any kind of advisory board, unless it’s for the Institute of Lying Hacks.
Conway released a letter in which she criticised Biden’s performance in office and said: “I’m not resigning, but you should.”
She tweeted it, too.
What’s the “Honorable” doing in front of her name? Is that a usual title bestowed on former press secretaries?
Anyway, they’re all fired now.
On the use of “Honorable” — I’ve seen conflicting accounts. This seems to be a matter of protocol and tradition rather than anything specified by law.
Apparently it’s common for senior White House officials, those who held the rank of assistant to the president, counselor to the president, special assistant, or deputy assistant, to be referred to as Honorable. Though I note that Wikipedia’s sole cited source on this doesn’t seem to actually say that.
This WaPo article addressed the question of whether Omarosa Manigault was entitled to refer to herself as “Hon.” in correspondence, and the whole article is sort of a gigantic shrug — one etiquette guide says no, one says yes but you should never use the title yourself in correspondence.
Whatever the merits of referring to current senior White House staff as “Honorable,” I really wish the U.S. would retire the concept of referring to former officials by their title or honorific for the rest of their life, with the possible exception of presidents and governors. It’s laughable to me that someone who served one term in the House of Representatives forty years ago still gets to be called “Congressman Smith.”
Other countries seem to be much more reserved about who gets to claim titles for life. Ironic that the country whose written constitution disdains them is so fond of them.
Kellyanne Conway complaining about ‘a break from presidential norms’? I cannot physically roll my eyes hard enough.
I am reminded of a joke.
Judge: Would you prefer to be tried by me, or by a jury of your peers?
Defendant: By you, Your Honor; I’d rather not be tried by a bunch of liars and thieves.
Screechy Monkey,
I agree; I found it exceedingly weird how Obama referred to Romney as “Governor Romney” during their campaign, when he hadn’t been the Governor of Massachusetts for more than a year. While it was true, in the “US Elections are forever” sense, that he had been a governor when he began campaigning in 2005 (yes, really), by the debates he was a full-time candidate with no more executive responsibilities than the dog he once forgot in the carrier on the roof of his car.
I’m not sure that began the habit of referring to people by their highest title for the rest of their lives, but it was certainly a synergistic moment. I vaguely remember some commentary on the subject at the time, but that was awhile ago, now.