They Had Sean Spicer Pegged Back in College
I missed this story when it came out last month, but it's worth offering again for the laughs.
So apparently Sean Spicer has been an annoying conservative asshole since he was an annoying conservative asshole on campus, many years ago.
So much so that his college newspaper, the College Voice, at Connecticut College, described him in 1993 as 'Sean Sphincter':
'The policy also will not correct the current policy of creating smoking and non-smoking rooms for self-scheduled exams, according to an amendment added by Sean Sphincter, house senator of JA,' according to the article, which references the Jane Addams dorm, where Spicer was a representative...
Sean Spicer, an annoying campus conservative, was, not unreasonably, incensed by the error.
'They said it was spell check error,' one former College Voice staffer recalls. 'It just never got caught.'
Spicer didn't buy it, and demanded an apology – and more.
In an angry letter to the paper, he responded, 'I am writing in response to the article in the April 26 edition of the Voice in which my name was "misspelled".'
Contrary to the paper's claim that it was a mistake, Spicer called it 'a malicious and intentional attack,' the Washington Post noted in a profile in August.
'The First Amendment does uphold the right to free speech, however, this situation goes beyond the bounds of free speech,' he added.
Spicer didn't just complain – he in effect sued the paper by bringing a complaint before the college Judiciary Council, recalls then-publisher of the paper, Jon Finnimore.
It was originally an autocorrect error, but it was so appropriate none of the editors who reviewed the copy could actually bear to take it out.
Not only that, but his skill of talking without saying anything was also noted from his college years. In another issue of the paper, this was written about him:
'Sean Spicer can talk and talk and talk, and after the dust settles and after the air is still, man mouths are quivering in awe and wonder at the way Sean can spin his yarn out for miles, without saying anything of consequence,' according to the article in satire publication Blats.
Not much has changed there.
All of this kind of gives some perspective to the defensive, angry, aggressive tone he's taken as WH press secretary.
The plump and callow campus conservative ready to give and receive offense has become the slightly more toned and professional spokesman, but he's still the same underneath.
At odds with the world, at odds with his fellows, at odds with the facts, but ready to plow ahead and stick it to everyone who's against him.
In other words, a perfect spokesman for the trump WH.