Sally Quinn mourns the lost days of harmony and power along the Potomac
[Hat tip: Ace.]
Why am I writing about Sally Quinn, of all people? She just wrote an essay that I find fascinating in the sense that it expresses feelings I’m pretty sure are common among the displaced power-wielders in Washington DC. More about that later; first, a bit of background.
Quinn was born in 1941. Her father was a Lt. General in the Army and her mother was known for cooking and entertaining when they lived in Washington DC. After college:
Quinn began at The Washington Post with minimal experience, and was reportedly called by Ben Bradlee after a report of her pajama party in celebration of the election to Congress of Barry Goldwater Jr. The job interview included the following exchange.
“Can you show me something you’ve written?” asked Managing Editor Benjamin Bradlee. “I’ve never written anything,” admitted Quinn. Pause. “Well,” said Bradlee, “nobody’s perfect.”
Quinn was an attractive blond and according to this 2005 article the married Bradlee was instantly smitten. They become a big DC power couple, probably the biggest, during the 1970s and for some time afterwards:
That was the ‘70s. If you were invited to Ben and Sally’s you were annointed. They never entertained all that much but when they did, it was perfect. Their New Year’s Eve parties were legendary for the eclectic mix of media, celebrity and political types. During the 80’s, they proved the adage that living well is the best revenge, buying a home in St. Mary’s County and continuing their various writing projects while raising son Quinn and quietly doing work for The Lab School and Children’s Hospital.
Somehow the spotlight was never very far from Ben and Sally, although they never courted it. Perhaps by this very casual approach to life and living, and the loyalty of friends and family, they have remained on most everyone’s A list. They are fun to be around. They know where the bodies are buried. They have staying power, and wicked senses of humor.
And if you ever find yourself seated next to one of them at dinner, you know you’ve arrived.
I very much doubt that “they never courted the spotlight” is a valid description; it actually seems an absurdity, given the facts of their lives. These were highly ambitious people and highly visible ones. Bradlee died about a decade ago, but Quinn is still writing. And that’s what called my attention yesterday: this essay of hers.
It’s a bit hard to characterize, because it’s a combination of so many things: prodigious entitlement that is so habitual it’s virtually unconscious; class snobbery; a rosy glow about a past comity in DC – including the Watergate years, which could hardly have been fun and games for Republicans but must have been great for the WaPo crew; the obligatory Trump-hatred and bile we’ve come to expect, and a sense of persecuted victimhood that’s ludicrous in one so – pardon the expression – privileged.
To take a few examples:
This spring Washington is a city in crisis. Physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. It’s as if the fragrant air were permeated with an invisible poison, as if we were silently choking on carbon monoxide. The emotion all around — palpable in the streets, the shops, the restaurants, in business offices, at dinner tables — is fear. People have gone from greeting each other with a grimace of anguish as they spout about the outrage of the day to a laugh to despair. It’s all so unbelievable that it’s hard to process, and it doesn’t stop.
Nobody feels safe. Nobody feels protected.
Jews in Paris or Warsaw after the Nazi takeover? No – just DC Democrats during the first months of Trump’s second term. Oh, the horror!
More:
This is a city where people seek and, if it all goes well for them, wield power. But today in Washington those who hold — or once held — the most power are often the most scared. It is not something they are used to feeling. I lived through the paranoia and vengefulness of Watergate. This time in Washington, it’s different. Nobody knows how this will end and what will happen to the country. What might happen to each of us.
The “paranoia and vengefulness of Watergate” – I guess she’s talking about Nixon? It’s not paranoia when they’re really out to get you.
This time, what’s different – IMHO – is that the MAGA Republicans mean business, in contrast to most Republicans of the past. The Deep State is in more trouble than it’s encountered in Quinn’s entire lengthy tenure as a Rich and Famous Person. Trump’s first term could be safely ignored, but not this:
Among once powerful lawyers, journalists, politicians, academics and lobbyists who have made up official Washington for the past few decades, the feeling is one of impotence, fear and frustration.
The hallmark of this administration is cruelty and sadism, vengefulness carried out with glee.
Unlike the lovefest towards Republicans that were the Obama and Biden years. No gleeful vengeance there, no sirree.
Speaking of paranoia:
“Everybody in Washington is being tested today,” says Leon Wieseltier, the editor of the literary review Liberties. “The question is: What can we do? It’s a time when we all have to ask: What am I capable of? It’s time for people to ask: What am I willing to die for?”
To die for? Does he think the Gulag is next? Or does he think the Resistance will call on him to to assassinate Trump? I’ve encountered these feelings of terrible danger and even threatened death among the more leftist of my friends, and I believe the feelings are rather commonplace in that set and not just among the formerly powerful.
Here’s an example of Quinn’s snobbery:
The traditional social culture of Washington is low key. Women here wear flats and blazers and shirtwaist dresses, informal haircuts and little makeup. Men, too, don’t dress to call attention to themselves. But now it’s all flash and Fox News. The Trump women can’t be missed in a room. They give off a Palm Beach, L.A. vibe.
Nouveau riche. How declasse.
And if you’re interested in Quinn’s acumen as reporter, here’s another passage from her essay. My interpolations are in brackets:
Even those who work for President Trump are scared [and I’m sure they’re all confiding in Sally Quinn about their fears – not]. The capricious and shambolic way he governed in his first 100 days has them all insecure in their jobs. [That’s the MSM line, but the first 100 days have been neither capricious nor shambolic, and it’s that which has put the fear into people like Quinn. The 100 days have been organized and high-speed, the product of a great deal of preparation. But Quinn repeats the agreed-on talking points.] Mike Waltz is out. [Out of one job and into another.] Bets are on as to how long Marco Rubio will remain in all his roles [Rubio seems to be in very good favor with Trump, and although he’s taken on Waltz’s role in addition, that was meant to be temporary for Rubio and expected to be temporary until someone new is appointed] and Pete Hegseth in his [seems fine too, so far]. Elon Musk is on his way out [another job that was said at the outset to be only for a few months and then out], though who knows whether he’ll be able to log back into the government’s most sensitive systems from wherever he is? [such fake concern for people’s privacy]
Quinn is in a bubble that’s impenetrable. She’s got a lot of company there.
Money, you got lots of friends
Crowding ’round the door
When you’re gone, spending ends
They don’t come no more
–Billie Holiday, “God Bless the Child”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKNtP1zOVHw
__________________________________
Money spigots are shutting off all over Washington, DC. Jobs lost. Careers ruined.
This is serious. Real people are being affected.
The daughter of a spymaster a self confessed witch (serena not samantha) one of the worst fauci flack (in print as in word) not a fave
Watergate-Era Washington Was Less Toxic Than This
During Watergate, WaPo journalists burrowed underneath the government superstructure, courtesy of Deep Throat, to bring down a President. Currently DOGE is burrowing underneath the government superstructure to bring down Big Wasteful Government. That certainly makes it more toxic for the likes of Sally Quinn. Worse yet, no one is listening to her any more. 🙂
The emotion all around — palpable in the streets, the shops, the restaurants, in business offices, at dinner tables — is fear….But today in Washington, those who hold — or once held — the most power are often the most scared.
Fear that the Federal gravy train—either from loss of federal jobs or from funny money from the likes of AID— will stop delivering. Boo hoo. DC area counties will no longer be the wealthiest in the country. Sounds like good news to me.
Both of us were decrying the widening gap between Republicans and Democrats in our nation’s capital. I remember him turning to me and suggesting that we start having small dinner parties for Republicans and Democrats to get together and talk. I agreed immediately.
We never got around to it. That conversation could never take place today.
Since this conversation led nowhere,what is the point of holding it today? Which doesn’t necessarily mean it couldn’t be held today.
Mr. Trump’s billionaire friends and cabinet are snapping up luxury real estate all over town,
Jeff Bezos bought his place in DC years before November 2024 election. Ditto Barack Obama, whose net worth of $60 million? Is chump change compared to Bezos.
With Mr. Trump in the White House, anyone who socializes with Democrats can come under suspicion.
From what I have read, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cut off socializing with someone of the opposing party. Young Dems more likely to despise the other party.
Among once powerful lawyers, journalists, politicians, academics and lobbyists who have made up official Washington for the past few decades, the feeling is one of impotence, fear and frustration.
No more AID funny money. What a shame! 🙂
But today in Washington, those who hold — or once held — the most power are often the most scared.
That’s good news to me.
The restaurants of choice have changed.
I am reminded of the Lexington VA restaurant—no longer in business—that refused service to Sarah Huckaby. A waitress in a DC restaurant posted last December on social media about refusing to serve Trump people—and got fired.
The hallmark of this administration is cruelty and sadism, vengefulness carried out with glee.
What administration pursued multiple bogus legal charges against a former President? Just wondering.
Some 23 brave friends showed up at my improv party prepared to make fun of themselves, and we all did.
Yes, SO BRAVE. Had to don disguises and carry false identity docs to fool the TrumpPolezei. Though maybe she meant they were brave for making fun of themselves.
If nobody cared, not one bit, not one soul in DC, would she feel safer knowing it?
I rather like her sense of style, but I do not like the features of the society she describes.
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IMO, an establishment in Washington should be devoted to curating greater Washington as a locality. There are some federal institutions in whose welfare they might take an interest (the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, the National Archives), but it’s the local manifestations of that which would interest their counterparts in Dayton which should command the bulk of their attention.
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NB, those establishments fail almost everywhere to promote policy adjustments which would improve the quality of life in slum neighborhoods. They’ve seldom been successful and arresting and countering the ruin that has been suburban commercial development in this country.
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If our political society were healthy, members of Congress would stay in Washington no longer than 12 years at a stretch, go back home, and seldom return. Federal civil servants would on average spend a half-dozen years in and around Washington during their careers, typically when they were close to retirement, professional military fewer. I doubt you could avoid having a crew of fixers like Clark Clifford and Tommy Boggs (brother of Cokie Roberts) running around town for decades, but you could order public policy in such a way as to reduce the revenue flowing to such people (and reduce their propensity to employ former members of Congress).
About Leon Wieseltier, I’d recommend Joseph Epstein’s amused account of the two of them having dinner in Chicago ca. 1983. Another would be Charles Lane’s account of the complaints he received about LW from women on The New Republic‘s staff. Vanity Fair did a profile in 1995 available only in hard copy. One of Charles Krauthammer’s eulogists recalled that during the 18 month period he and LW worked at The New Republic, CK found it more to his liking to rent a small office across the street with his own money than to run into LW in the hallways. The man’s a great manufactory of schaldenfreude.
I’ll grant the vengeance, and Dems deserve it, but I doubt the cruelty and sadism. Pull yourself together, Sally.
Like so many here say, the fear is the strong feeling that the current gravy train pig trough is over AND there’s nothing like it on the near term horizon.
Plus the realization that if they have to get a real job, they actually don’t have skills that are worth their current levels of being overpaid. So they’re on their way down in income, and status.
I doubt that many will be moving to any inner city with lower rents, tho.
I’ve seen the fear expressed by many of the leftists I follow. They really believe that a Fed is going show up at their door and haul them away. At first I was appalled at such thinking, now I’m amused and I hope they continue down that road. The danger is that if their fear so overwhelms them they might act out on it.
Interesting that the WaPo has an 84 year old widow writing on the state of current society.
I remember when the new republic was a serious paper (when mike kelly was editor) before them when they published ‘no exit’ and the bell curve series since then chris hughes bought it and it became one of the spokes of the journolist and it has become an implacable spreader of agitprop
I thought wieseltier was serious then not so much afterwards
People like her are why people like me voted for Trump.
Townhall’s star writer Kurt Schlichter frequently writes about “our garbage elite.”
And back in 2011, Mark Steyn wrote that he had minimal expectations of this country’s “depraved political class.”