I shall pause for a moment before joining the general hilarity that Monday afternoon attended the end of Anthony Scaramucci's brief, but unfor-fucking-gettable tenure as the official voice of Camp Runamuck. Yes, he should've been fired the second that his phone conversation with Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker hit the Intertoobz. Yes, what we have learned about his private life makes him the saddest of sad cases. Yes, hiring someone for the apparent express purpose of firing Reince Priebus is something out of the more unfathomably abstract art of the deal. Ho, ho.

Let's stop, though, and take a look at all the praise being heaped on John Kelly, the retired Marine general who has stepped in to replace Priebus as White House chief of staff. There are too many sighs of relief going on in the elite political press, too much wishful thinking among the political class in Washington. There was more talk of "discipline" in the coverage of Monday's events than can be found in The Story of O. Sure, Kelly may run a tighter ship than Priebus did. So, very likely, would have Crazy Captain Gunboat Willie. Firing Scaramucci was a very easy call.

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But, simply because he's competent, don't make the mistake of thinking that Kelly isn't a Trumpist. Just taking this job is proof enough of that, but, during his brief time running the Department of Homeland Security, Kelly was charged with implementing not only the president*'s Muslim ban, but also unleashing ICE to conduct terrifying raids all over the country in furtherance of the president*'s race-baiting rhetoric regarding immigration. As to the first, last January, Kelly stated that the Muslim ban was not a Muslim ban, but it was. He also stood by the ICE raids. On this issue, he and the president are flat-out running buddies. Kelly is a good soldier and, in this administration, that worries me.

Frankly, I don't want this president* to project competence in office. The only thing slowing our slide toward an authoritarian government is the fact that the president* is so bad at it. I don't want the message to be coherent if the policy is destructive and retrograde. If the president* starts performing the role of The President without throwing himself into the orchestra pit three times a show, then the theater-critic wing of America's punditocracy may decide that Kelly has made a silk purse out of this particular sow's ear. It will not be true, but it might be something you can sell.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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