Stories like this (via Hot Air Headlines) are merely the harbinger:
[Valerie] Jarrett appears to exercise such extraordinary influence that in some quarters on Capitol Hill she is known as “Rasputin,” a reference to the mystical monk who held sway over Russia’s Czar Nicholas as he increasingly lost touch with reality during World War I.
No one suggests that Jarrett is solely responsible for the administration’s slow response to the crises, contradictory communication, and labored political calculation that have become its hallmarks.
…Of course not. They merely leak such suggestions to the appropriate reporters* and let the Beltway consensus do the rest. Oh, don’t get me wrong: Barack Obama will be highly resentful of any attempt to remove his favorite sycophant and lackey, and he will fight his best to keep Valerie Jarrett. But somebody is going to have to take the blame for the Democrats losing the Senate, and everybody in This Thing Of Ours pretty much loathes Valerie Jarrett. Except for the Democrats; they loathe and fear her.
Guess we’ll see how it goes, huh?
Moe Lane
*If you think that Beltway Democrats wouldn’t leak to the National Review, then you don’t understand This Town at all. Remember: this is the sub-culture that created the term of art known as ‘plausible deniability.’
The big question is how many years of Secret Service protection will Valerie Jarrett be eligible for after she leaves the administration?
I don’t think she’s actually _eligible_ for it at all, but if I understood the article correctly, she managed to get it for herself, and abused it heavily.
The president can assign Secret Service protection by executive order. For example, Axelrod had it for a while after his personal info was found on a shooter. It will probably take a Constitutional Amendment to end Jarrett’s. 🙂
Nah, she’ll just be buried in the Tomb of the Known Apparatchik.
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Mew
The Obamabus is hungry…..
And in other news, there is rampant speculation that Fozzie Bear will soon fire Frank Oz’s hand.
Well if she does leave it will prove once again that we have no idea who the puppet master is.
I originally thought it was Rahm Emmanuel but he left.
Obama is too disinterested *not* to be a figurehead for someone else.
The question is who that someone is.
Nah, Rahm was never the top dog, he was one of the attack dogs – I think running Chicago (possibly with an eye on running Illinois (into the ground) someday) is his goal.
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I do agree that the actual hand is very well hidden…
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Mew
Or the Puppet has been letting people take turns shoving their hands up his….