Cincinnatus Returning To The Plow?
The charge should be rather that he, Tony Snow, and many others, as they live, shut up about "how they took pay cuts for their "public service" (which only increases their market value -- see everyone from Cheney and Rumsfeld, and how they parlayed their "public service" into huge fortunes, or all the lesser figures who somehow, because they were in this or that administration, managed to make it big from Reagan's Budget Director (what was his name) to Clinton's George Stepanopoulos.
Particularly galling is the invocation of the need to pay "tuition for children" that puts them in the category of "now having to make real money." What is $168,000 but "real money"? This kind of talk -- and in happens all the time -- is indulged in by those who have no tact, who are oblivious to most of us, and who both insult and depress all of those for whom $168,000, or half that, or one-quarter of that, is indeed "real money" -- which is to say, a great many.
Tony Snow can leave office any time he wants for whatever reason.. But he should just shut up about his financial sacrifices and how terrible it was that he had to "take out a loan" after a year or two of what is called, with the false implication of Cincinnatus-leaving-the-plow sacrifice, "public service." Everyone who reaches the level of Tony Snow, no matter how idiotic such a person has demonstrated himself to be, subsequently makes out like gangbusters; at the very least, lifetime sinecure at one of those permanent floating crap-games of opinion, the Washington Think-Tanks, where the "thinking" part of the title on the door may be less important than the nubile secretary on the floor.
Posted on 09/02/2007 6:50 AM by Hugh Fitzgerald
Comments
2 Sep 2007
Frank
In the general case, I would agree with this sentiment.
In this specifc case I make an exception. Tony's health is not good, making it impossible to obtain adequate life insurance for his family.
2 Sep 2007
Rebecca Bynum
That's fine - everybody understands that. The point is, he didn't have to
say it.
2 Sep 2007
Enoch
I sense a certain tinge of envy here. Be that as it may, I have to tell you, as a resident of northern Virginia myself, $168,000 simply is not all that much money in this area. 28% of the families in Fairfax County make $150,000 or more, and another 22% make $100K to $149K. Housing costs are proportionately high. If he lives in DC, he certainly is not sending his kids to the crappy, unsafe public schools, so he's probably spending $25K per kid to send them to private schools.
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