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(Screen grab: The White House / YouTube)BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Not since those early days of President George W. Bush's War on Iraq, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's press briefings were considered must-see television, have we seen press briefings like the ones presided over by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders, who replaced the demoralized and utterly defeated Sean Spicer, personifies the opposite reality of one of Rumsfeld's favorite aphorisms; "known unknowns," as she is a known known.

Known now for her ability to fog up the meaning of just about anything President Donald Trump -- or anyone close to the president -- has said or tweeted, and turn it into hooey gooey fudge, followed by an attack on the press. Comparing Sanders to Sean Spicer, The New York Times' Frank Bruni pointed out in an early November column, that Sanders, "dwells without evident compunction in a gaudier fairyland of grander fictions. There's no panic. No squeak. Just that repulsed expression, as if a foul odor had wafted in and she knew — just knew — that the culprit was CNN."

Bruni called Sanders' press briefings "breathtaking": "Sanders doesn't draw nearly the censure or ridicule that Spicer did, and the reason isn't her," Bruni write. "It's us. More precisely, it's what Trump and his presidency have done to us. Little more than nine months in, we've surrendered any expectation of honesty. We're inured."

Following the lead of her boss, Sanders has become adept at demonizing the media. Whether she is defending General Kelley ridiculous comments about the civil war, or re-imagining Trump's nasty tweet about MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski, or just plainly attacking the press corp. for their dishonesty; or defending Trump's sexist attack on New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Sanders appears to take on those tasks in stride with great relish and aplomb.

What about the numerous women that have accused Trump of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior? To Sanders, that's another non-issue. After all the American people elected him!

She defends the president by disregarding the content of his bold-faced lies, and then arguing that the American people elected him to be the a "Tough", "smart" "fighter."

To Sanders, the Russian investigation is a witch-hunt; she defends the president using the subway explosion in New York City as a cudgel against immigrants; and has even gone so far as to claim that the president is a "perfect role model," for people of faith.

While I don't pretend to know much about her relationship with her father, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, it does seem like the apple has fallen pretty darned close to the tree.

Defending bombastic conservatives is nothing new for Sanders, according to Newsweek's Julia Glum. In a late-July column, Glum reported that, "Sarah is more like her dad than anybody else in the family," says former Huckabee adviser Curtis Coleman. "She was a political animal at 14," said former Huckabee staffer Lance Lemmonds, now the director of communications for the Faith & Freedom Coalition. He says that as she grew up, she helped with events, tracked poll numbers and grilled staffers on intricate policy questions, taking particular interest in topics like health care."

Huckabee was the national political director for her father's 2008 presidential bid. According to Glum, "In 2010, she managed Arkansas Republican John Boozman's successful campaign for senator; a year later, she headed former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign. In 2014, she advised Arkansas Senate candidate Tom Cotton, and in August 2015, Sanders became campaign manager for her dad in the GOP presidential primary race. When Huckabee dropped out early, she joined the Trump campaign as a senior adviser."

Mike Huckabee, a multi-time failed presidential candidate, has a long career of spitting out some of the most loathsome lies and attacks on all things not Huckabee. In his book, God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, he lashed out at President Obama, and First Lady Michelle, for allowing their daughter to listed to the music of Beyoncé, which he called "obnoxious and toxic mental poison."

Over the years, Huckabee, perhaps parroting Trump, claimed he knew for sure Obama was raised in Kenya; pushed for making the cockamamie teachings of Christian historian David Barton mandatory in the public schools - by gunpoint if necessary; used the Holocaust to argue against the Iran nuclear deal; and slammed actress Natalie Portman for her unmarried pregnancy.

As I pointed out in a BuzzFlash column two years ago, Huckabee used to be "seen as one of those few Religious right guys who was a little bit cuddly, a little bit rock' n roll, and with a sense of humor; a kinder and gentler Christian conservative, one who might be able to build bridges, not blow them up. These days, Huckabee has increasingly become a scold, and just another wannabe hustler of culture war memes."

Sarah Sanders Huckabee appears to have totally embraced the scold part of her father's personality, as that's what she's bringing to the podium each and every day.