Farewell, the Mooch. It was fun while it lasted

How are things in your country? In mine, we’ve spent the last week and a half being governed by a mid-aughts buddy comedy named ‘Donald and The Mooch’. That latter sobriquet belongs to Anthony Scaramucci, Donald Trump’s erstwhile PR man who went on a 10-day profanity-laden bender across Washington proper before even the President realised this probably wasn’t a good idea and headed off to Vegas without him. Scaramucci was sacked on Monday. His official start date wasn’t until mid-August, which makes him the shortest-serving White House comms director in history at negative 15 days.

Yet he made quite an impression during his non-tenure. The Mooch was given his job following the resignation of White House press secretary Sean Spicer, hated by every scribbler in D.C. except for me, and there was profound hope among journalists that he’d be a stabilising influence. That wishful thinking originated at his first press conference, where he came off as a bit unctuous, but nonetheless conciliatory, serious, ready to mend fences with Trump’s media foes.