For the most part, members of the U.S government generally abide by the following unspoken rules: They are not supposed to ever make us think about them having sex, and they are not supposed to swear in public. Bill Clinton broke the first rule hugely, and was impeached. And President Obama’s administration is chipping away at rule No. 2. Every administration has had their slips, but from POTUS himself declaring Kanye West a “jackass” to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s “expletive-riddled rants,” to every other word out of Rahm Emanuel’s mouth, this may be our most potty-mouthed yet. Witness the various obscenities that spilled forth from the mouths of our leaders in this week’s New Yorker profile of Larry Summers alone.
Rahm Emanuel: “What the fuck are you guys doing?” the chief of staff reportedly demanded whenever complicated Treasury ideas reached his desk without warning.
Unnamed Treasury Official: “The way Tim came up through Treasury is that he was the only one who would tell Summers he was full of shit or that an idea was stupid.”
Joe Biden: “How many former Secretaries of the Treasury would come in not as Secretary of the Treasury?” Biden says, of Summers, adding, “And he’s the smartest son of a bitch.”
David Axelrod: “Geithner, that poor son of a bitch,” Axelrod told me. “He was going to be the first human sacrifice of our Administration as far as Washington was concerned.”
We’re not passing judgment or anything, we’re just pointing out: That’s how they talk. Everyone’s either a bastard or a son of a bitch.
Inside the Crisis [NYer]
