a dance of dunces?

White House Library  1963

U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

-------------- [excerpt from CNBC interview with Anthony Scaramucci] ------------

On backstabbing in Washington

"These are terrible people.  By and large, they are vicious people ... Let me tell you how it works in Silicon Valley and Wall Street, this is my observation:  

You build your business and you build your career off of relationships, so you're trying to create a big karma bank:  'I'm gonna do one for you, you're gonna do one for me, we build a relationship.  We may be competitors once in a while, but we're both on the green team:  We're transacting over money.'  

In Washington, they actually get off on hurting each other.  

They earn badges or stripes on their lapel if they hurt somebody else:  'I crushed Swisher.  I went after her with opposition research, I had 10 reporters write nasty things about her and she fell from grace!  Look at me, look how cool I am!  Look how important I am.'  They do that to each other and they admire it from each other."

--------------------------------- [end, excerpt]

-30-