The First Rule of Washington

"The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club."--the character Tyler Durden in Fight Club.

Some background. Senator Ben Sasse (Neb.) had started building some national name recognition with his public call for a third party candidate to run against Trump and his support of the #NeverTrump campaign. Which irritated Mike Cernovich enough that Cernovich began digging into Sasse's past discovering certain unpleasant matters, including Sasse's connection to a pedophile scandal involving members of Congress. (More here). Background over.

Anonymous Conservative published a piece a few days ago discussing Cernovich's article, and the larger issue of why people like Sasse are so upset about Trump. He observed:

One thing which struck me is how all of these #NeverTrump people seem most bothered by the tendency of Donald to openly voice criticisms of people. Bill Kristol said, “For me it is more of a matter of character, and I don’t know if you can change your character… The way he demeans other people.”

Building off that, he mused:

Imagine you were a closeted gay with a penchant for little boys. What would be most important as a trait, in your eyes, in any individual seeking to join your little club? Would you worry about his policy positions, or whether he would keep his mouth shut about your degeneracy? What would you think if you saw a guy show up who thought nothing of not only speaking openly of your degeneracy, but who would gleefully mock you on Twitter over it, to the amusement of millions of his fans? 

Now when I see guys who never mentioned Clinton’s rape and sexual assault history get all upset that Trump is criticizing people openly, I wonder, what are they hiding? Are they the next Dennis Hastert? Will we hear about them abusing little boys in ten years? What is going on behind their closed doors?

But that seems to be the first rule of Washington: you don't talk about what really goes on.

That seems to be what bothers the elite so much about Ben Rhodes interview in the New York Times Magazine. Daniel DePetris writes at The National Interest:

The piece was, in a word, stunning. It was stunning for the honesty with which President Obama’s deputy national security adviser embarrasses the mainstream news media and the Washington press corps for being unable to think for themselves; for the impressive way in which Rhodes climbed the U.S. foreign policy ladder in just a few short years; and for the fact that an administration official still serving in office is naming names and embarrassing the very people in the press that have been instrumental in selling Obama’s foreign policy.

And:

Rosie Gray, a political reporter for BuzzFeed News, was aghast that the White House would allow Rhodes to talk as openly as he did on the record to a journalist, and that Rhodes himself would actually make his thoughts about the press public. 

In other words, Rhodes sin was not that he told the truth about the Washington journalists, but that he told the truth about the Washington journalists. He talked.