‘Steven Mnuchin's Deal Staved Off Catastrophe. Can He Make Another One?’

[AdamSmith]

Oneself knew Mnuchin as a classmate at Jale. Intelligent and reasonably politically moderate. He must feel himself in Hell today.

Steven Mnuchin's Deal Staved Off Catastrophe. Can He Make Another One?

https://news.yahoo.com/steven-mnuchins-deal-staved-off-183653170.html

[stevenkesslar]

23 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

Oneself knew Mnuchin as a classmate at Jale. Intelligent and reasonably politically moderate. He must feel himself in Hell today.

Steven Mnuchin's Deal Staved Off Catastrophe. Can He Make Another One?

https://news.yahoo.com/steven-mnuchins-deal-staved-off-183653170.html

Awesome article.  Thanks for posting that.

I agree with the author.  It's part of the weirdness of the President Toxic era that Steven "Foreclosure" Mnuchin, the guy who said the fat cat tax cuts would pay for themselves (Oops!), is arguably the most shining light in this Administration.

The other two survivors that come to mind are Pence and Pompeo.  I see both of them as both ass kissers and conservative ideologues who play to Trump's right.  What's interesting about Mnuchin, as the article documents, is that he excels at both ass kissing and centrist pragmatism and compromise.

This is the line from the article that best sums it up to me:

Quote

“Mnuchin is factual and straightforward and wants to get something done and isn’t partisan or ideological,” says a senior Democratic House aide. 

I'll take it one step further.  The saddest thing about Mnuchin as a historical figure is that he symbolizes what a Trump Presidency could have been. 

There was talk between November 2016 and January 2017 about how Trump, having won, might come out of the box as an "art of the deal" consensus builder that lived to cut deals, like Mnuchin appears to. Karl Rove was talking up a big infrastructure bill.  Had President Toxic listened solely to people like Mnuchin and Rove, he might be in a very different position today.  Instead, Steven Bannon wrote his red meat Inaugural address.  Where has that gotten him?

One obvious problem for President Toxic is his conservative base.  But they've followed him off the cliff, anyway.  I have to imagine they'd have also followed him if he'd decided to build a bridge over the cliff, instead.  And then there are all the conservative GOP Senate and House members.  But they've turned into his lap dog, anyways. Even though it likely means many of them are on the verge of losing elections.  Surely they would have preferred to follow him if it actually meant winning.

My theory is that the real problem is just President Toxic.  Steve Mnuchin is everything Trump is not.  Including someone who knows when and how to ass kiss when he needs to.  And how to cut deals with Pelosi, rather than just tweet about her.

I'll leave it to the historians to figure it all out for us.  But it is a tragedy, even before the tragedy of COVID.

Edited October 6, 2020 by stevenkesslar

[AdamSmith]

Very much appreciate those thoughts.

I’ve posted this before, but it seems to ring true again. There was a saying during WWII:

If you have a job that absolutely must get done, get a Yale man.’

[tassojunior]

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by tassojunior