[Rummyfan]

Recent days have offered plenty of evidence of just how good it is to orbit President Biden. The lobbying firm of Steve Ricchetti's brother Jeff saw a quadruple increase in fees between the first half of 2020 and the first half of 2021, according to the Wall Street Journal. So far this year, Ricchetti Inc. has taken in $1.67 million. "I do not lobby my brother, nor have I lobbied the White House this quarter," Jeff Ricchetti said in an email to the paper, in one of the most cleverly constructed sentences I have read in a long time.

Surely Jeff Ricchetti understands that Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti is not the only employee of the executive branch, that "lobbying" is an amorphous term, that the "White House" or Executive Office of the President is just one of innumerable executive and legislative bodies that make policy, and that "this quarter" is only the third of four per year. What did he do in the first two?

And I thought the Clintons were the pinnacle - or nadir - of corruption....

[DFG]

“Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.” Harry Truman