Klobuchar staffers cry Bad Boss
Presidential Democratic candidate Amy Klobuchar got sandbagged last week by Klobuchar staffers who were characterized as “terrified aides” likening her to no less a petty tyrant than Donald Trump. Reports of her abusiveness headlined in Buzzfeed and the Huffington Post, followed up by a piece in Vanity Fair by Tina Nguyen (February 8). Nguyen’s coverage fortunately came around to positive comments by Klobuchar supporters (yes, current and former aides! with skins, we are made to think, are like a rhinoceros!).
Last week, NPR’s night anchor Mary Louise Kelly was interviewing a politics specialist regarding Klobuchar, who had at the time not yet declared as a candidate for President. The guest journalist mentioned the knock against Klobuchar’s alleged bitchiness, at which Mary Louise observed that the same kind of criticism would rarely be leveled at a male candidate for office.* The reporter (a woman whose name I don’t recall) hesitated for a moment and then said, in the tone of someone being thrown slightly off her game, something like “yeah, you have a point.”
Mary Louise Kelly’s suggestion of a double standard being applied to Senator Klobuchar does not excuse Klobuchar’s behavior if she was/is in fact, cruelly abusive. Of course I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but I do know that many admired and inspiring leaders do not and have not suffered fools gladly. I also know that there are other staffers who have come to Klobuchar’s defense. I know that on the Rachel Maddow show a few days ago Klobuchar admitted to losing her temper on occasion, with her usual matter-of-fact tone, sans defensiveness. (She made a similar admission to George Stephanapoulos on live TV.)
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