Tom Price, the American public was just getting to know you as secretary of Health and Human Services in this volatile administration before you were gone. Why? Because of a still developing scandal that brings back sour memories of Travelgate during the late and not so great Clinton administration. It may have been Karl Marx who said history occurs twice, the first time as tragedy and the next as farce.
Any president soon becomes known for the quality of his hires and fires, and at this still early point in his action-packed administration, the Hon. Donald J. Trump, chief executive and ringmaster, has a wildly mixed record since he's going through appointments and disappointments with all the whirring speed and complete absence of consistency as a Mixmaster. When it comes time for the historians to chronicle his time in the Oval Office, it's unlikely they'll produce another dry-as-dust collection of volumes. A comic book might be more likely, complete with acton-packed panels and dialogue. Pow! Bam! Kaplooey! Not to mention Snap! Crackle! and Pop! Take that, and that and that!
Among others, this president has fired or at least run through his (a) chief of staff, (b) chief political strategist, (c) deputy assistant to the president, (d) press secretary, (e) two communications directors, (f) deputy chief of staff, (g) FBI director, and (h) too many other aides, advisers, and hangers-on to mention in this limited space. Tom Price is turning out to be not the exception but the rule when it comes to padding his travel expenses.
For the record, let's not forget the fine appointments this president also has made--like Associate Justice Neal Gorsuch of the country's highest court. But his standard response when a rotten apple turns up in his administration's barrel of appointments has become "You're fired!" Just the same as it used to be on the reality show he once conducted with equal gracelessness. There ought to be a better way to handle presidential appointments and disappointments, but Mr. Trump hasn't yet discovered it. Instead he acts with all the dignity of a nightclub bouncer giving an unwelcome customer the bum's rush.
The rise and fall of Tom Price in this administration is characteristic of its travel troubles, which at the moment seem to be multiplying and spreading beyond control. By now suspicions have arisen about the travel expenses of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, and last but scarcely least Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin. A cancer is eating away at this presidency as surely as the one that proved fatal to Richard Nixon's. Happily, the tumor may still be excised, but only if remedial action is taken sooner rather than later. There are certain surgeries that shouldn't be delayed--for the sake of the patient's very survival.
For the moment the Trump administration lies wide open on the operating table, its internal workings exposed for all to see. The sooner the operation proceeds the better its chances. And those making endless excuses for it aren't helping but hindering; they would do better to offer candid criticism.
To quote an earlier occupant of the Oval Office, the much under-rated Warren G. Harding: "I have no trouble with my enemies . . . but my damn friends, my God-damn friends . . . they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights."
Editorial on 10/03/2017