Quickies: The Uses Of Anger

     I often find myself itching – no, not from my eczema, though that certainly doesn’t help – to grab a politician by his lapels and shake him until his brains start to work. In several cases that might be a very long shake, but on occasion a pol will display a readiness for the therapy:

     Secretary Pompeo was almost there. His responses to the odious Chris Murphy were excellent returns to Murphy’s political tendentiousness. But what Murphy (and most of his Democrat colleagues) really deserve is not polite, wholly factual responses delivered in uninflected tones, but to be publicly whacked across the chops with their biases and their ill-concealed agendas.

     Anger properly used can humiliate your enemy, making him slink off with his tail between his legs. Properly deployed and modulated, anger can leave your foe knowing that he’s been overmatched so completely that he’ll deem a return engagement out of the question.

     When Murphy asked, querulously, how to know “which of [Trump’s] statements are policies,” Pompeo replied, entirely calmly, “Look at the policies.” While that was the exactly correct factual answer, it needed a dash of tabasco for maximum effectiveness. Perhaps like this:

     (face clouding with contempt) Well, Senator, if it isn’t too much trouble, you could try looking at the policies. That might clear up your confusion.

     Or imagine what Pompeo could have done with this:

     (smirking) Tell me, Senator, who was it who said “After my election, I’ll have more flexibility” -- ?

     The implication that Murphy is callously wasting the time of the Secretary of State, an official critically engaged in international negotiations right alongside President Trump, should hang in the air like a particularly noxious fart. The undertone, of course, should be While you’re doing your pitiful best to besmirch my boss and his administration, I have important national business to conduct.

     A man is entitled to be angry about the waste of his time to answer stupid questions, especially when it’s being wasted for political purposes. It’s high time Republican officials began to display such anger. It would help to make clear exactly what’s going on.

     Ironically, Barack Hussein Obama was rather good at delivering this kind of angry public riposte. His media handmaidens often applauded him for them. They might not cheer a Trump appointee, but who cares? Didn’t we elect Trump in part because he’s straightforward, especially when he’s angry?