And the pig likes it
by Tom Sullivan
Can you say self-absorbed? Michelle Wolf's White House Correspondents’ Association dinner act Saturday night stuck a pin in the press corps' self-importance. Rather than a loud pop, the result has been a long, high-pitched whine as the air escapes. Worse, Wolf upstaged Trump's Saturday night performance outside Detroit, as did the Trumper shouting "degenerate filth" at the press pen. While the WHCA sucked up to the White House, Wolf put them down. The Beltway has a sad.
Hey mags! All these jokes were about her despicable behavior. Sounds like you have some thoughts about her looks though? 😘 https://t.co/JRzzvhBuey
— Michelle Wolf (@michelleisawolf) April 29, 2018
"In a normal environment," writes E.J. Dionne, "the Republican Congress’s assault on food-stamp recipients, the administration’s waivers allowing states to erode Medicaid coverage, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson’s proposed rent increases for some of the country’s poorest people would be front and center in the news."
Wolf pointedly observed the press is part of why they are not. So the press had a fit over jokes about Sarah Huckabee Sanders, demonstrating how Trump's talent for diversion is rubbing off. It's what comes from becoming too chummy. As the adage says, "... and the pig likes it." (Though probably not.)
Dionne continues:
Nothing is significant for long, everything is episodic, and old scandals are regularly knocked out of the headlines by new ones. It’s a truly novel approach to damage control.Dionne is not addressing the national press, but speaking about how the "profound swampiness" of the current administration is eroding confidence in liberal democracy. The self-absorption of a national media with the Trump reality show and its being coopted as extras is not helping.
“We need some more wins, first of all because that’s the right thing to do, second of all, because it’s politically expedient to our base to turn out in the fall, to make sure they see us being active and following through on this stuff.”They need accomplishments to talk about on the campaign trail, but cannot agree on what they should be.
“People want to know what you will do; they don't want you constantly saying ‘You're welcome’ for being functional long enough to pass tax reform. Especially when tax reform isn't overwhelmingly popular,” a senior GOP House aide told me.Neither is much else in D.C. Peering over the perimeter of I-495, it's easy to see why.