Spicey

My maybe controversial opinion is that while Trump is a uniquely horrible human being who is eroding certain important norms by grifting during his presidency instead of after, as respectable people do now, the Trump administration, as of yet, has not yet proven itself to be worse than the Bush administration (yet!). The people he surrounds himself seem to be a lot less likely to know which fork to use with the appetizer, and are maybe a bit more stupid, but they are no more craven than the people who populated the Bush administration.

As for Spicey being "rehabilitated" on the Emmys, well, Spicey was a not very important low level toady who just happened to be on the television so people know who he is. His earlier incarnation, Ari Fleischer, was and is a worse human being in every way, except maybe for the fork etiquette, and he was never ejected from polite society. Henry Kissinger is everybody's buddy. The Washington Post editorial page is full the worst Bushies/apologists for the worst of the Bush era.

Many people slept through the Bush administration. I'm not quite sure why that is. 9/11 is probably a big reason, but not the only one. Trump is very bad and the Trump administration is very bad, but a lot of bad came before them which was all perfectly normal. A lot of the people who are now conservative anti-Trumpers should be about 5000 places behind Spicey in the "return to polite society" line.

On the flip side, it has to be a bit heartening that some conservatives who used to be sort of MSNBC “villains” are now on your network trashing a Republican president.
One of the most amazing outcomes of the Trump administration is the number of neo-conservatives that are now my friends and I am aligned with. I found myself agreeing on a panel with Bill Kristol. I agree more with Jennifer Rubin, David Frum, and Max Boot than I do with some people on the far left. I am shocked at the way that Donald Trump has brought people together. [Laughs.]

Without going into the full details of the responsibility of each, the full horrors that these people unleashed on the world are far greater than anything the Trump administration has managed yet, and they've never stopped being people in good standing. That all is forgiven because Bill Kristol doesn't like Trump...