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The Screaming Moderate

Thug, Pug or Slug?

1/23/2014

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Let’s play a game. I’ll say a name and you tell me if he’s a thug, a pug or a slug. So we agree here are the definitions:

Thug: A brutal ruffian

Pug: A lovable but bad boxer

Slug: A lump

Okay, here goes:

Vladimir Putin: thug, pug or slug

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christe: same question

Former Virginia  Gov. Robert McDonnell: ditto

For me, the jury, literally, is still out on McDonnell. My guess is he’s a slug. Federal prosecutors tend to overstep their boundaries to grab a headline. Virginia law allows most of the gifts the McDonnell’s took, which I guess is why it’s a federal indictment. My guess is the former governor is a slug, though. He apparently has a wife who likes the finer life, and who sought it despite his pleadings to just say no. They shouldn’t have taken the gifts but are they law breakers? Ethically challenged for certain, law breakers, not so sure.

Christie, well, the jury is out, too. So far I’d put him in the pug category on the bridge shutdown issue. He’s a fighter for sure, and a can appear to be a bully. But did he order or know about the shutdown of the lanes on the GW Bridge? Dunno.

Putin, well, we know he’s at best a thug. But to fight for having the Olympic Games in Sochi, well, he’s a thug that made sure his cronies profited, he’s a thug that put the games in a place that, if they come off without serious incident, he’ll look better than he is, but who still put the world’s athletes, media and fans in grave danger. Danger? No, grave danger (as Jack Nicholson said in “A Few Good Men.”)

Maybe worse on that issue is the International Olympics Committee which granted the games to Putin when it knew Sochi is a gravely dangerous place. Exactly what was the committee thinking? Those games will be a success if no one is injured because of non-athletic reasons. Putin will “look good,” I guess, if his police can prevent such an incident. But maybe a real leader wouldn’t have put so many people at risk in the first place.

Thugs, pugs, or slugs? Time will tell.

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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