In the annals of you gotta be kiddin' me

Oh for the love of Mike. Why can't this good man Barack Obama ever catch a break? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind has a new book due out next week (“Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President"). In it, the Washington Post gleefully reported, an unnamed high-ranking female official told Suskind: “The president has a real woman problem. The idea of the boys’ club being just Larry and Rahm isn’t really fair. He [Obama] was just as responsible himself.” In other words, the President of the United States is sexist, a throwback to the "Mad Men" era when men were men and women served "coffee, tea or me." That sound you hear is Suskind's White House access drying up. [Going, going ... gone.] I think I can safely speculate that this unknown female source ― clearly a lady with an axe to grind ― has grossly mischaracterized Mr. Obama. Indeed, if this isn't outright slander then it's only two shakes shy of it. But who cares about the truth? Suskind, with a little help from the WaPost, has books to sell. And last one to gutter is a rotten egg! The press has at long last found (maybe) what it believes to be "dirt" on All the President's Men, Obama Edition. In the public mind, this is precisely why journalists rank up there with used car salesmen and blood-sucking lawyers. So sad. So typical. So inevitable. It makes me want to pack up for the tropical peace of Bora Bora.

AND ONE MORE THING: As all West Wing fans know, today is "Take out the Trash Day." The idea is dump bad news on the press on Friday (preferably near Happy Hour). Why? "Because," as Josh Lyman said in Episode 13, "No one reads the paper on Saturday." Or its online equivalent. This DC tactic is usually done by the White House. But newspapers do it too ― especially when they're sliming the president. It's also noteworthy that the only news org (so far) to focus on the female angle in Suskind's tome is the WaPost. Oh and there's been nary a word (so far) about it on the major blogs (which is a bit curious).