[Paine in the Neck]

This whole thing has its origins in the fact that The Smartest Woman in the World is, in fact, fairly dull-witted. She needed Sid Vicious as her brains but he was banned from government employ. She had to find some way for all her SoS work to be funneled through him so that she would know what to do. Thus, she had to set up her own private State Dept., one in which Blumenthal could act as her deputy secretary.

[headstamp 2]

You are on to something.

She basically disappeared a soon as she got the appointment.