There’s a telling exchange in “101 Dalmatians,” the late-1990s Disney TV series. It comes in the episode “Bad to the Bone/Southern Fried Cruella.” Mooch, the bully dog, is taunting roly-poly Rolly, when one of Rolly’s friends speaks up.
Spot: You know what happens to bullies?
Mooch: Yeah. They get all the good stuff.
I’m not sure if Mooch-the-pooch inspired Anthony Scaramucci, the New York hedge-funder and feisty Trump defender whose nickname he shares. Maybe it was the other way around. Either way, Mooch-the-human has definitely landed on familiar territory as the latest pugnacious mouthpiece for President Donald Trump.
Right away, let’s get one thing straight. Scaramucci is not the new White House communications director. He may have the title. He may have the briefing-room microphone. But in this tumultuous White House, only one man directs the communications. He uses his thumbs a lot. His initials are DJT. Everyone else, the Mooch included, just arrived from Office Temporaries.
Judging by his performance on the Sunday shows, Scaramucci thinks Trump is perfect and all complaints are mainstream-media narratives or more fake news. And the Mooch has no intention of dwelling in the past. Shrugging that “past views evolved,” he spent the weekend sweeping smoldering stink bombs from his own Twitter account.
There, he was praising Mitt Romney for staying out of the “Trump spectacle.” He was declaring his stances “for gay marriage, against the death penalty, and pro-choice,” all verboten to the Trump base. He was announcing Jeb Bush “will make a great president” and “I like Hillary. Have to go with the best athlete. We need to turn this around.” For good measure, the Mooch even fretted about global warming, backed gun control and said of Trump’s biggest promise: “Walls don’t work. Never have, never will.”
Things don’t end so well for Mooch or for Rolly in that “Dalmatians” episode. Rolly joins a gang for protection. Mooch isn’t nearly the fighter he pretended to be. And, well, I don’t want to blow the ending for you. But before he makes any plans for the distant future, Mooch-the-human might want to go on YouTube and look it up.
Metro columnist Ellis Henican is a veteran journalist, best-selling author and frequent commentator on CNN and other TV networks. Follow him on Twitter @henican.
