In (qualified) defense of Kelly Sadler

I never thought I’d even offer a qualified defense of any member of the Trump Administration. After all, if you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas. On second thought, let me fix that insult to all the wonderful doggos out there. If you lie down with bedbugs, you get up with bedbug bites. (I was doing to use cats and fleas, but I don’t want to insult cats, either. Bedbugs? Ain’t nobody going to jump to their defense…)

Anyway, the one and only member of the Trump Administration I have any regard for is James Mattis, and that’s only because of my fantasy scenario, which is that if Drumpf decides to start WWIII, Mattis will launch a coup. Or something.

And the only members of the Trump Administration I have any pity for are actually members of the family, not the Administration. And those members are Tiffany (the luckily for her forgotten and neglected daughter) and Barron (poor kid period).

But back to Kelly Sadler…

A week ago, no one other than her friends, family, and colleagues knew who she was. Then overnight, among those who obsessively follow the news, she’s a household word. Make that a household epithet.

For those who don’t obsessively follow the news, Sadler is the member of the White House communications team – our tax money in action! – who infamously made a crack about John McCain’s dying. This was in the course of a meeting where the crack communications team was discussing the upcoming vote to approve Gina Haspel as CIA Director. McCain had announced that he would not be voting to approve because of Haspel’s refusal to agree that torture is immoral. Sadler apparently made a ‘who cares’ sort of remark, noting that McCain was dying, anyway.

Thanks to one of her colleagues, the story went public, and all of sudden the dudgeon was riding preposterously high.

Sadler’s comment was unfunny – “sources” reported that her “joke” fell flat. Callous. Crass.

But who among us hasn’t made an off-the-cuff remark in a work or social situation that we lived to regret. We said something hurtful. Off-color. Untruthful. Stupid. Mean. I’m not talking about necessary truths that someone is going to find unpleasant. I’m talking about something that just plain didn’t need to get said.

If you’re smart - and not given to saying things that are hurtful, off-color, untruthful, stupid, mean, unfunny, callous, crass – you read your audience and apologize right away. If you’re not that smart, or your timing’s off, a friend, family member or colleague will call you on the remark, and you get to be embarrassed. Most likely followed by an apology.

If you’re really unlucky, you have a friend, family member or colleague who won’t confront you, but will just go an blab to the world what terrible thing you said.

Which is what happened to Kelly Sadler.

Hard to believe, when there are no doubt plenty of sterling candidates around, but maybe Kelly Sadler is the very worst person on the WH communications team. Maybe everyone’s delighted she’s been outed as an unfunny, callous and crass piece of crap. But, given the White House reputation as a recurring lost episode of Game of Thrones, it’s more likely that she’s just part of a faction that another faction hates with a fury. No better or worse than the person in the next office down.

So, off to the press with that little leak. Really a nothing, as leaks go. And really, as far as unfunny, callous, and crass things to say go, what Sadler said was pretty much of a nothing, too. A crack about John McCain’s probably sooner rather than later death? Seriously, BFD.

Of course, in today’s world, what shouldn’t be a BFD turns into a major shit storm. And all of a sudden Kelly Sadler is a household name (at least among news obsessives).

Here’s what I think:

Kelly Sadler said something untoward.

Apparently, one of her colleagues couldn’t wait to hiss their way out of the snake pit and inform the world.

And all of a sudden, Kelly Sadler finds herself a proxy for those in the White House who are more visible and who make crass and callous remarks with some regularity. (And, yes, I’ve got my eye on you, Mr. President. And you, too, Mr. Kelly – fellow graduate of a school run by the Sisters of Notre Dame: for shame! Just slap those illegal kids into foster care “or whatever”.) Not to mention LIE all the time.. (For getting my eye on: ditto the aforementioned, and throw in Sarah Huckabee Sanders.)

All of a sudden, there’s a big hue and outcry for Kelly Sadler to be fired.

Attention huers and outcriers: unless she’s doing a ton of rotten stuff behind the scenes, unless she’s colossally incompetent – and both of these conditions may be true: we just have no way of knowing – Kelly Sadler shouldn’t get fired just because she said something unfunny, callous, and crass. Maybe she gets a reprimand, a black mark in her personnel file. Maybe. In most of the world, someone would have called Sadler out on her remark and that would have been the end of it.

I understand that the people who care about John McCain – his family, friends, and colleagues –  are upset by this remark. They’re watching someone they love approach the end of his life. Been there, done that. Sadness and tension abide. But firing Kelly Sadler can’t do anything about John McCain’s glioblastoma. Nor would it bring civility and decency back to the White House. (And, by the way, Sadler’s remark  was not especially uncivil or indecent, at lease to someone with my lax and unrefined standards. Just unfunny, callous and crass.)

I shouldn’t feel at all bad for Kelly Sadler. After all, you lie down with bedbugs…

Still, I have some (qualified) sympathy for someone who gets caught up in such a major contretemps because she’s got a nasty colleague with a big mouth. I’m all for those WH leakers telling us the big stuff. I want to know the outrageous things this cast of malefactors is saying and doing to undermine our democracy - and the world, while they’re at it.

By the time you’re reading this, Kelly Sadler’s time in the barrel may be over. There’ll probably be some new outrage to focus our collective umbrage on. Let’s just try to reserve that collective umbrage for things that really matter – and nobody needs me to put that list together. A dumb stray comment by a lower-tier staffer isn’t one of them, even if we want to make it emblematic of all the truly awful stuff that’s going on behind closed doors at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.