You Know How to Whistle-Blow, Don’t You?
Maybe the indictment really is “Washington’s hottest literary form.” Mark Leibovich at the Washington Post thinks so. Could the charging document someday eclipse the memoir? It’s too soon to tell, but in only a few months, we’ve seen the genre grow at an absurdly fast pace: Libby, DeLay, Safavian, Scanlon, Abramoff. And yet, as reading material goes, I haven’t found the legalese all that juicy.
Still, I’m not worried. Leibovich may be captivated by Representative 1 and Staffer A, but for me, the fascination begins with the source: the whistle-blower.
Exhibit A: Emily Miller, ex-fiancée of Michael Scanlon, former business partner of now penitent Jack Abramoff. Scanlon and Miller met cute back when they worked for Tom DeLay in the 90s. Miller went on to distinguish herself as the State Department staffer who once ordered a Meet the Press cameraman to stop taping while Tim Russert was questioning Colin Powell about WMD. So, this is a woman who wasn’t going to take kindly to being thrown over for a manicurist. Her response to the broken engagement? Call the FBI. Dishy as these details may be, Miller didn’t break any molds when she dropped the dime.
Consider a certain former White House secretary. Remember how Linda Tripp got put out to pasture in the Pentagon? Remember how nicely that particular restructuring played out?
Or, remember, farther back, in 1973, how another disgruntled employee avenged himself after being passed over for promotion. When Mark Felt found out Richard Nixon had made L. Patrick Gray III director of the FBI over him, Felt didn’t get mad, he got… . Well, actually, he did get mad. He got really mad.
Political whistle-blowers are rarely driven by pure intentions. They do not shed light on botched burglaries, presidential peccadilloes, money laundering, and widespread corruption because they are filled with a guiding sense of moral duty or burning zeal to serve their country. They have simply had their feelings hurt. (No Karen Silkwoods here.) They have been scorned, jilted, neglected, cast aside, kicked to the curb. Their wounded pride festers and their fantasies of revenge grow and grow and grow.
So, keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and if you’ve forgotten anyone, it’s probably too late.
January 5, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Your thoughts on the type of the “whistle-blower” are spot on. However, does the fact that you’ve got a solid grasp on the “whistle-blower” thus demonstrate the paucity of interest a whistle-blower can generate? - They’re defined by their scorn. Yay. Those are the sorts of people I always like hanging out with, right? The ones that bitch about how they’ve been wronged all the time. -
What is unique about Washington, generally, is its irrelevance despite all the power centered there.