In 1942, James Thurber wrote perhaps the best humorous short story of his career, The Catbird Seat. The phrase seems to have originated from Red Barber, the legendary broadcaster for the Brooklyn Dodgers. “Are you sitting in the catbird seat” meant that the person was in an advantageous position over his opponents, a position which caused his enemies to aid in their own defeat.
In Thurber’s story, Erwin Martin, head of the filing department at F&S, has his job threatened by Ulgine Barrows, an “efficiency” expert hired two years earlier by his boss, Mr. Fitweiler. Barrows, a large, brassy, loud and aggressive woman had managed to have three employees fired, caused another to quit and reorganized some of the firm’s departments. She was fond of quoting Barber’s colorful descriptions of baseball action, which included such phrases as “Are you scraping the bottom of the pickle barrel?”, and “Are you lifting the oxcart out of the ditch?” as well as the title phrase.
Martin, a small, fussy man who was quite meticulous in his work, saw the threat of reorganizing his department as a threat to his employment of twenty-two years. He decided to kill Barrows. Because of his frugal and abstemious habits, he thought he could throw police off the track by making the killer look like someone he wasn’t. Buying Camel cigarettes (he didn’t smoke) he went to Barrows’ apartment, but couldn’t find an appropriate weapon to do the deed. So he accepted the offer of a drink, which he also had never done, lit up a Camel, and loudly and profanely criticized the boss. He also claimed he was making a bomb to blow the boss up. Barrows, offended, reported the incident to Fitweiler. Martin denied even being in the apartment, and the more he denied, the wilder Barrow’s actions became. After all, such behavior was totally out of character with Martin. Finally, convinced that his “expert” had gone off the rails, the boss had her removed, and all was well in Martin’s world. He had been in the catbird seat.
Who is in the catbird seat in American politics? I contend it is Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. The object of the most concerted campaign to discredit him and drive him from office, Trump has been in the most advantageous position, causing his enemies to inflict more harm on themselves than to him. Many examples can be cited to prove this point.
All this began when Trump and his wife, Melania, descended the escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President. On the stage with sixteen other aspirants for the job, he managed to outlast all of them. He sat in the catbird seat on campaign financing, not by using his wealth, but by making the other Republican candidates use up valuable resources battling for the job. How? By his outrageous pronouncements and attacks on his primary opponents, Trump got media coverage daily, drowning out the messages of the others in the process. One by one the also rans dropped out, while Trump basked in the glow of constant coverage he did not have to pay for.
We start with his selection of Mike Pence, Governor of Indiana, to be his running mate. Convinced that Trump would choose someone like himself, the Democrats and other left-wing pols tried to discredit Pence. But try as they might, the Hoosier Republican was squeaky clean. Calm, soft-spoken, the Governor supported the positions that his standard-bearer had, while expertly dodging taking a position on some of the more unbelievable claims Trump made. When the media found out that Pence would not even go to dinner alone with a woman not his wife, the media pounced. Yet it was quickly proven that most Americans agreed with Pence’s loyalty to his wife and his taking the marriage vows seriously. Trying to inflict damage on the President’s choice for Vice President was akin to a swarm of gnats attempting to topple an elephant. Catbird seat? Trump, of course.
Even the most damaging information about Trump did not seem to derail his candidacy. During the Presidential campaign, information about his somewhat shaky financial dealings, which included bankruptcies, was not fatal to his chances. A tape of comments made eleven years before, in 2005, about his attitude toward women, was made public. He had been married three times, and had bragged about his conquests in the past in his books. Trump’s TV shows were brought up and showed a man who was brash, and egoistic. But in the end, he was in an advantageous position over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Clinton was beset with her scandals from the past as well as the private server controversy. Clinton also ran one of the poorest campaigns in modern Presidential history, and refused to concentrate on the rust belt voters. Her personality was not charismatic, as none of her husband’s legendary connecting with the electorate had rubbed off on her. Clinton’s negative rating was even higher than Trump’s. In the final analysis, who sat in the catbird seat? The Donald.
After the election, the same dynamic played out. Impeachment was threatened immediately, most stridently by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-LaLa Land). Even two Democrats have introduced an impeachment resolution into the House of Representatives. These efforts will go nowhere, and Trump can even sit in the catbird seat and allow all this to play out, knowing such attempts will fail. With the House and Senate solidly in Republican hands, no impeachment bill will pass, and even if it did, the Senate would not convict. The President doesn’t even need to comment on this; his enemies just look foolish.
One event towers over all the rest in assessing Trump’s position of advantage. The selection of Neil Gorsuch to sit on the Supreme Court had Democrats and liberals in a snit. Gorsuch, eminently qualified, endured two months of scrutiny of his record and his opinions written. A Senate confirmation hearing saw Democratic Senators hammering away at him, but the nominee calmly swatted away the attacks with aplomb. In the end, even three Democrats voted to confirm, and the President again had seen his enemies do more harm to their position than to his.
Wailing and gnashing of teeth was seen far in advance of Armageddon when President Trump began unraveling the regulatory mess left him by his predecessor. In ceremonies reminiscent of former President Barack Obama (don’t you just love that word “former?”) the current President used his pen and phone and rolled back the overreach in the EPA, the IRS, federal land use, the coal industry, gas and oil drilling, and climate change as well as approving he pipelines held in abeyance by the previous administration. He banned former White House officials from lobbying for a certain time, changed the Obama era rules on federal funding of abortion and other regulations which stifled the economy. Border crossings have been reduced by 72%. Even foreign affairs have left Trump’s enemies just nipping around the fringes. He had a successful first foreign trip with the Middle East nations, and told NATO allies to pay their fair share. His war of words with North Korea’s resident nut, Kim Jong Un, which was heavily criticized, saw his admittedly abysmal approval rating shoot up six percent. Much more could be added, but any objective analysis would show Trump in the catbird seat over his opponents.
Trump’s opponents predicted doom and gloom about the economy when he became president. Yet, the stock market, long a predictor of the health of the nation’s economy, has hit new high after new high. The Dow Index has topped 22,000 at session’s end several times and is now hovering around that mark today. All the President has had to do is to sit back and watch his enemies seethe as the market marches on. Once again, the catbird seat is occupied President Trump.
Democrats and other liberals have vowed to resist Trump at every turn, and on every issue, even if his policies are good for the country. Yet all the marches and demonstrations and pronouncements by the Hollywood elites and entertainment celebrities have not caused one strand of that yellow hair to be out of place. Thurber’s tale of the catbird seat could well have been a harbinger of Donald Trump’s first half-year of his first term. He is in the catbird seat.