The Morning Story of Stephen Hadley

By Todd Gitlin | bio

As Stephen Hadley squared his shoulders, smiled fixedly, condescendingly, during his morning appearance on Meet the Press, signaling firmness as he cut and ran from the latterly censorious wisdom of Tim Russert, as he explained unhesitatingly that his employer is always on top of things, I found myself thinking of Elizabeth Kolbert’s nice piece in the current New Yorker about bedtime stories. The typical bedtime story, she writes, invites the child to take a flight of fancy and then, in the end, to sell out—to go to bed.

Hadley has the smooth middle-management, upwardly mobile manner of a man who sounds as though every question you might pose is a symptom of incomprehension. Little girl, I know what’s good for you. You may think you know what’s good for you but that is because you are a little girl. I am not. You should know your place. Observe as I tuck you in.