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"'The best service I can provide this president is, for the next couple of years, outside this building,' said Gibbs, who announced Wednesday that he would leave his press secretary job in early February. He will then hit the lucrative speaking circuit and become a paid consultant to the Obama reelection campaign."
—And that's just the beginning of this incredibly brutal farewell to press secretary Robert Gibbs. For instance: "'He's had a six-year stretch now where basically he's been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay,' Obama said Wednesday in an interview with the New York Times. Gibbs's White House salary is $172,200 a year." Mrow!
This is kinda just a facepalm right now, but I bet this little 'modest pay' comment comes back to haunt him in ways far greater than anyone now expects.
"I will miss you starting right now" is a keeper.
At some point in the '00s, some lesser Bush cabinet member — Tommie Thompson? Let's say him — left his cabinet position and said "Well, my wife told me it's time that I made some real money." Cabinet members make six figures, of course (low six figures, but still) and I thought that very nicely illustrated the mindset of a class that protests that people making $250K a year aren't rich enough to support higher taxation.
The modest pay bit is definitely impolitic, but you couldn't pay enough to do that job. There's a reason why they always burn out after about two years.
With a 24/7 shift, he was making about $19.68 an hour.