Things are not going well at The White House. The Obama administration’s fabric is ripping and things are falling apart. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned on Friday, and that was big news, but even more telling of things going bad was a far more significant resignation within the White House itself.
People are asking how did Jay Carney last as long as he did?
Pundits say White House press secretary, Jay Carney’s resignation signals an the end to patience with Barack Obama.
Ari Fleisher, President George W. Bush’s press secretary for almost two and a half years, understands the pressure of that job. Fleisher said of Carney, “I wish him well. He served a long time in a very hard job. Regardless of politics or ideology, or whatever anyone thinks of him or his boss, it’s a hard job and a wonderful job.”
It had become blindingly obvious to all that Carney was a lot like the blundering German Sergeant Shultz on the TV sitcom, “Hogan’s Heroes,” who is shown in the video clip below, yelling, “I know nothing, nothing.”
Democratic analyst and pollster Doug Schoen said, “Press secretaries have a natural life of only about one term, so I am frankly surprised he has stayed as long as he has. He spouted the party line, avoided difficult questions, and maintained he knew very little about most subjects beyond what he had already said; a job well done from the president’s point of view.”
So much for accountability. So much for an open presidency. So much for transparency. The only thing that was transparent was that anyone could see right through him.
Carney, 49, succeeded Robert Gibbs in February 2011 after working for Vice President Joe Biden. Obama named Carney’s No. 2, Josh Earnest, 39, as his successor. He first worked on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Carney’s colleagues had been known to snicker at his blatant attempts to cover up items that were obviously to everyone. One of his last famous attempts was the day the Benghazi emails were uncovered through the Judicial Watch Freedom of Information request. Carney’s take on the content of the emails could have been part of a stand-up routine.
Carney had to explain the unexplainable, including the new revelations surrounding the administration’s response to the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, the ongoing IRS scandal that acted only on conservative groups for “special scrutiny,” plus outrage over the NSA’s surveillance programs, and the “Fast and Furious” Department of Justice gun running scandal.
Fleischer told Newsmax that Carney had been in the job “an awfully long time. That’s an unusually long time for a modern-day press secretary. The job requires an unwavering loyalty to the president, and it cannot be done otherwise.”
Perhaps Carney had gotten up in the morning and didn’t like what he saw in the mirror, just like Sergeant Schultz in the skit below. Carney’s performances may have prepared him for life as a stand-up comic, the humorless straight man in a comedy duo, or even an acting job.
This Hogans Heroes skit is a perfect representation:
