Kristol Clear: ‘The Jobs Game’ Comes to D.C.

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…”
Ain’t that the truth? Almost a hundred years ago, Yeats saw 2016 coming: The Chicago Cubs win a World Series for the first time since 1908. Donald J. Trump becomes the first man ever who hasn’t held either elective office or a cabinet position, or who hasn’t been a general officer, to win the presidency. And then, on Saturday, disaster: Yale (going into The Game with a 2-7 record) defeats 7-2 Harvard, for the first time in a decade.

WHAT IS GOING ON?

Who knows? It’s enough to drive a person—especially a #NeverCubs/#NeverTrump/#NeverYale person—to drink. Which is what I should be doing right now. But a) I’ve got to write this newsletter, and b) I’m too busy playing a small role in D.C.’s favorite pastime when a new administration is coming to town—The Jobs Game!

Even if you’re not close to the winning candidate, even if you aren’t seeking anything yourself, even if you haven’t been directly in government or politics for two decades…if you’ve been around D.C. for a while, it turns out you know lots of people who want a job, you know some people who deserve a job, and you know a few people who have a real chance at a job in the new administration. And you know some of the people who have (or supposedly have) the ear of the President-elect or those close to the President-elect. So, for a few weeks in November and December, it’s nonstop phone calls, emails and texts, conspiracies embedded in conspiracies, and masses of uninformed speculation swirling around with occasional nuggets of truth mixed in.

Needless to say, it’s kind of fun. And you rationalize the time you spend on this by thinking that if you help one good person get an important position, and a few good people get senior positions, and lots of younger people get a start, then it’s time well-spent. Or at least it’s probably time better-spent than whatever else you’d doing. So…back to the phones!