The Gatekeepers; Radio West, August 2, 2017

Doug Fabrizio, Radio West; The Gatekeepers

[Kip Currier: Heard some very interesting comments from Chris Whipple (author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency) on either CNN or MSNBC while I was driving this morning:

[Paraphrasing]

Chiefs of Staff have to manage up, as well as manage down. 

Chiefs of Staff have to be the one person able and willing to close the Oval Office door and tell the President how things really are.

Chiefs of Staff who don't do their jobs well and allow things to happen that shouldn't, commit "Chief of Staff malpractice".]

"Wednesday, journalist Chris Whipple joins us to talk about what’s been called the toughest job in Washington. White House Chiefs of Staff serves as gatekeepers to the Oval Office, and they help define the course of the country. Whipple interviewed all 17 men still living who have served in the position. Ultimately, he says, their style makes or breaks each presidency. We’ll examine the job’s unique challenges and ask how new chief of staff John Kelly might shake up the current West Wing.

CHRIS WHIPPLE is a writer, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. He earned multiple Peabody and Emmy Awards as a producer CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s Primetime. Most recently, he was the executive producer and writer of Showtime’s The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs. His new book is called The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency [Independent booksellers|Amazon|Audible]"

Where Are the United States Attorneys?; New York Times, June 6, 2017

Editorial Board, New York Times; 

Where Are the United States Attorneys?

"Three months after President Trump abruptly fired half of the nation’s 93 United States attorneys, following the resignations of the other half, he has yet to replace a single one.

It’s bizarre — and revealing — that a man who called himself the “law and order candidate” during the 2016 campaign and spoke of “lawless chaos” in his address to Congress would permit such a leadership vacuum at federal prosecutors’ offices around the country. United States attorneys are responsible for prosecuting terrorism offenses, serious financial fraud, public corruption, crimes related to gang activity, drug trafficking and all other federal crimes.

As is usually the case when confronted with his own incompetence, Mr. Trump has spent his time looking for somebody else to blame...

There are two other obvious, and perhaps simpler, explanations, and both may be correct. Mr. Trump does not actually believe in or care about his campaign claim of “lawless chaos” in our streets. And Mr. Trump is not a good manager — not of his businesses, certainly, and not of the vastly larger, more complex organization he now runs, the one that matters to the well-being of every American."