OPINION:
Appearances can be deceiving.
Case-in-point: The Anthony Scaramucci of ten-second television soundbite, of two-minute media interview, of five minute pundit appearance, is not the Anthony Scaramucci of in-person or on-the-phone.
He’s actually refreshing. And low key. And frank.
And in a Washington, D.C., world of lying liars, where smiling while backstabbing is a time-honored talent, the one-time short-term White House communications director has a lot to offer — a lot of lessons to impart — about the need to stay humble, about the challenge of placing aside pride and about the oft-frustrating, oft-difficult journey toward self-awareness, repentance and redemption.
At heart, his is a very human story.
“I shouldn’t have started my first day with a chainsaw and a hockey mask,” Scaramucci admitted, of his few days in the White House that were marked by internal conflict and negative media coverage.
But “my pride and ego [got] involved,” he said.
The rest, as they say, is history.
“Anthony Scaramucci’s Uncensored Rant: Foul Words and Threats to Have [Reince] Priebus Fired,” the New York Times blared in a July 27, headline.
“John Kelly, Asserting Authority, Fires Anthony Scaramucci,” the New York Times followed, in a July 31 headline.
But the drama doesn’t have to define, he said.
Scaramucci said he was raised on blue-collar values, taught in the ways of salt-of-the-earth people, schooled on priorities of family and faith and so forth.
“Be careful who you hang out with,” he said.
He attended Tufts and Harvard Law School, moving quickly into a career of financing. Somewhere along the line, he lost his blue-collar compass.
“If you’re hanging out with smart intelligent elitists who are very wealthy, you’re going to see the world they do,” Scaramucci said.
You may think you haven’t changed, he warned — but you have.
“I deluded myself. I disconnected from my blue-collar roots,” he said. “I was in denial, I was going in a spiral. … I wasn’t as grounded as I thought I was.”
A wake-up call came in politics. Scaramucci may have served only a handful of days in the White House — he says 11; media outlets widely report 10 — but his lessons could fill a book. In fact, many have. Scaramucci just wrote “Trump, the Blue-Collar President,” which includes, as Amazon put it, stories of “the rise and fall of the Mooch” and how, in part, he blindly lived his “high octane” life until joining the “Donald Trump for President” campaign and awakening “to the plight of our country’s middle class.”
It’s a glimpse into a world of wealth and privilege by an individual who wasn’t raised with the proverbial silver spoon in mouth; his dad, for instance, was a construction worker. So basically, that makes Scaramucci a true American dream — a face to go with the fantasy held by many, many more in this nation.
His best advice for those now similarly climbing ranks, or hoping to one day similarly climb ranks?
“Try not to buy into your BS,” he said. Sound advice. He continued: “I think it’s revelatory to have gone through what I went through … You can be devastated by it, or you can take it as a learning experience.”
He chose the latter. His Roman Catholicism helped.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in life,” he said. “And if you think about Christianity, it’s about forgiveness — but it’s also about self-forgiveness. You’ve got to take the millstone of regret off your shoulders.”
Else stay mired in despondency, shackled by remorse, ineffective in fighting the good fight, right? Right. Which segues nicely into the final question: What about a return to politics?
“My wife says [I’d] go back in like 13 seconds,” Scaramucci said. “After what happened to me, I don’t think anybody would ask me to go back.”
Maybe not. But then again, maybe. America, after all, loves a good come back story. America loves a tale of rebound and redemption.
Especially when it comes wrapped in December, with a good old-fashioned Christmas twist.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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