Columns, Politics

Scaramucci’s Profane Tirade Is No “Italian Thing”

scaramucciBelow is my column in USA Today on the profane and shocking statements by the new White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci.  The staements were later defended as “an Italian thing.”  The suggestion was that this was just a form of Italian venting.  It was not.  First, as someone raised in a Sicilian family, I would not have been able to sit for a month if I ever spoke like that to anyone.  Indeed, we just celebrated the 90th birthday of my mother, Angela Piazza Turley,  in Chicago. If she read such statements by me in the press, I would have been met with a cane at the door.  Second, this was not venting. It was raving and seriously undermined both Scaramucci and the Administration.

Here is the column:

 

After the new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci went on a profanity laced tiradein a conversation with New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, Scaramucci explained that he sometimes uses “colorful language,” and many noted that this was part of his Italian heritage. Indeed, Italians are known for their passionate speech, but there are a couple of useful lessons in this scandal. Consider it my own Rosetta Stone language program for those who want to understand casual Italian.

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Like Scaramucci, I come from a large Italian family. Both of our grandfathers came to this country around the same time. My grandfather and grandmother on my mother’s side were from the same village in Sicily (my name is from the Irish side of my father). There is indeed a “problem of translation” that occurs when outsiders come into an Italian family. When I first took my wife Leslie to meet my family in Chicago, she witnessed a fight between my mother and one of my sisters in which my sister told her kids to “say goodbye to your grandmother,” since they would never see her again. Leslie was almost in tears and asked me to “do something.”

At first I was confused and realized she was referring to the argument. I explained that by evening they would be at the kitchen table having coffee. They were.

The point is that Italians do speak to each other in ways that can shock people. When my Irish family says that you are dead to them, they mean it. They will next see you at your funeral. When Italians say it, it could last until … dinner.

That does not mean that there are not red lines. When one of my sisters was going out with a guy that my Mom opposed, the two had a full cathartic scream session. However, when my other sister moved toward the door, my mother met her with a broom and said “I gave you life and I can take it away.”  My sister knew better than to argue the legal point of premeditated homicide.  She turned around and went upstairs. My mother then collapsed on the couch. As my father and I comforted her, I turned to my Dad and said that we had witnessed perhaps the greatest moment of maternal Italian history: my mother had succeeded in actually hyperventilating in arguing with one of her daughters. It was the equivalent of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reaching the top of Everest or Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile. It was perfection — pure passion driving an athlete past her physical abilities.

The point is that these comments reflect both a depth of love and vulnerability among Italian family members. The problem is that the same comment can make you look like an unchained lunatic if you say the same thing in a subway … or to a reporter.

Scaramucci, however, forgot a few unwritten rules for Italian venting.

First, we actually do not speak this way to non-Italians. Even relatives like Leslie in my family are viewed as non-combatants. Years of conditioning prepare us for understanding that being told as a kid that your Mom will cut off your hand if you take another cookie means simply that you have had enough. So when Scaramucci said he wanted to “kill” staffers, it sent staffers to the media saying that they felt unsafe. Of course it did. Telling someone you will cut off their hand if they take another roll at a restaurant is taken not as maternal but homicidal.

Second, we never do this in public, except in controlled and entertaining environments like weddings, where there are contextual warnings of the cultural content, like Italian bunting or a majority of guys named Dominick and Tony. Telling a stranger that your co-worker likes to engage in self-fellatio tends to confuse non-Italians who try to determine if that is physically possible and legally permissible. They don’t get it.

Third, Italian venting is a matter of focus even when it seems indiscriminate. While most people who have witnessed an Italian tirade can be shocked or even fearful, they are actually controlled explosions by experts bred for such displays. This is why the best firework companies are Italians like Zambellis, Gruccis, Parentes, Fazzonis, Rozzis, Cartianos, de Sousas and others. They were raised in environments of controlled explosions and know how to use them safely. Now Scaramucci may have thought he was talking to a fellow paisan, but there is a difference. Lizza is not paisan, he is press. His job is to report. Scaramucci said “I made a mistake in trusting in a reporter. It won’t happen again.” Well, that should not have taken a scandal to learn. In Italian tirades, the difference between a beautiful high-altitude firework and an indiscriminate street explosion is control.

Scaramucci showed the cost of an uncontrolled Italian explosion. In so doing, he did not just harm himself but his administration. At a time when the White House had to convey strength and strategy to jittery GOP members on the Hill, he conveyed not passion but panic. He should have known that. This is why NFL players do not randomly tackle people on the street. They are professionals and know when a sack is appropriate and when it is a felony.

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Scaramucci is right when he said, “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the f____ing strength of the president. I’m here to serve the country.” He can serve it better than this. What he said was outrageous and amateurish. And do not blame it on us. To paraphrase the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, I know Italian venting. Italian venting is a friend of mine. This is not Italian venting.

Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

104 thoughts on “Scaramucci’s Profane Tirade Is No “Italian Thing””

  1. God bless your Mom on her way to 100.

    Little Baron must be impressed with Daddy’s selection
    Of W.H.Coms.Dir.
    What a role model for our youth.

    Tony Snow R.I.P must be turning in his grave..

  2. While we are on the subject of Sicilian/southern Italian heritage, we cannot forget the region’s Viking roots. Roger I, a Norman, i.e., a Viking, conquered Sicily in 1091 and his son, Roger II is generally considered the 1st king of Sicily. Their domain came to include southern Italy. Inevitably, the ruling Normans intermarried with the locals. Thus, fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed Neopolitans like my 90 year old mother and her 94 year old sister. Yes, Italian women live a long time. No smoking and the Mediterranean diet will do that for you. Eat lots of tomatoes, cook with olive oil, and set your sights on 100. Cent’ anni.

    P.S. Sicily also has Greek, Carthaginian and Arab connections as well. Maybe a few others.

  3. Pingback: On the Prowl w/this Final “Thought 4 the Week” For July 2017 :) | Welcome to My Corner Here on Word Press

  4. BtW – Prof. Turley, I loved your column and am happy you can celebrate your nana’s birthday! Wow – half Sicilian/half Irish – what a combo. Obviously you inherited the best of the genes from each culture.

    1. Autumn – as a half Sicilian, he cannot join the mob. And most of the Irish gangs have been wiped out. 🙂

  5. OT Meanwhile as the nation focuses on Trump’s tweets/hirings/firings etc. the biggest scandal that makes Watergate pale in comparison is ignored: the Awan brothers / DWS / infiltation of Congress by foreign agents. Umm, wasn’t it the Pakis who supplied NK with the expertise to develop nukes?

      1. Was Joseph Rago Italian? What happened to this critic of Obamacare who wrote:

        “well crafted, against-the-grain editorials challenging the health care reform advocated by President Obama.”
        __________________________________________________________________________________

        “Joseph Rago, a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer at The Wall Street Journal who was known for his richly reported pieces and influence on policy makers, was found dead Thursday evening at his home in Manhattan. He was 34 years old.

        The New York Police Department found Mr. Rago dead in his apartment at 7:40 p.m., according to a police official.

        Mr. Rago was found with no obvious signs of trauma and emergency responders declared him dead at the scene, the police said. The cause of death was being determined by the medical examiner on Friday.

        Mr. Rago made his biggest mark writing about health care. In 2011, he captured the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for what the Pulitzer organization called his “well crafted, against-the-grain editorials challenging the health care reform advocated by President Obama.”

      2. Bit long, it’s so complicated I thought it needed to be layed out thoroughly — first I heard about several months ago I thought it was a conspiracy theory! =)

    3. Autumn, You are a superb out of the box thinker. Thanks for the video.

      1. Thanks Paul – trying to make some sense of the murky doings with the DNC.. Also, don’t remember if Moynau reprorted ‘ DWS’s brother, Steven Wasserman, is the Assistant US Attorney at the Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia. Don’t know if or what this has to do with Seth Rich or this case.

  9. As half Irish, I agree that threat of death does mean death. However, they throw a hell of a wake. 🙂 Even your murderer will come drink free booze to your death and sing sad songs.

    However, I am going to disagree on what i feel to be a significant point. Sicily is not Italy. Sicily is the home of the Mafia, Italy was not. So, if you are comparing your Sicilian roots to Italian roots you have it all wrong. You are comparing apples to oranges.

    1. Paul, that’s exactly what I was thinking – Sicily is definitely not representative of Italy at large. There are certainly differences between Southern and Northern Italy for sure – the crime and poverty in the former is yuuge, but still nothing like the crime cartels in Sicily. Did you see that film “The Leopard” or read the book? I thought both were excellent.

      1. Autumn – I saw the film, did not read the book. Saw both the series on the Medici, plus a great extended documentary. Fascinating family.

        1. Paul:
          You’re right, mainland Italians do draw a distinction between their Roman roots and Sicily’s more Arabic family lines.

          1. The dirty secret w/ Italians is, the lower south you go the lower you go in status. And, of course, that carried over to the US. Joe DiMaggio was brought up in a poor, Sicilian fisherman family in San Francisco. However, many of the Italians who settled in SF were northern Italians. The founder of the Bank of America in SF, was Amadeo Giannini. His family was from northern Italy. Northern Italians look down at southerners, particularly Sicilians. So, the chip on Joe D’s shoulder came from that dynamic, and grew throughout his life.

            1. That’s exactly correct and the crowd at the Alps near the Swiss border think they are at the top of the food chain — blue eyes and all.

              1. mespo, We have taken 2 trips to Italy. The first one we flew into Rome and headed south. The second we flew into Milan and stayed north. Although we never got to the very north you describe. There is diversity in US culture, Boston being much different than say, Dallas. However, I have never experienced anywhere here, and I’ve been to 48 states, the dichotomy I experienced between Milan and Naples. I liked both cities, but did feel safer in Milan. But, I also felt like a hobo in Milan. They do dress nattily!

                1. Next trip Go to Florence or my favorite place, Lake Garda, and see all the ruins. We’re going next summer if you want to go!

                  1. Darren, I just replied to mespo and used the quite proper word, “b@stardization” which was flagged and put into moderation. I would appreciate your assistance. Thanks.

                    1. mespo, Short version of lost comment. We spent a few days in Florence and loved it. Drove Tuscany and loved it as well. Pisa was a waste. Rapallo was a hidden treasure and we really liked blue collar, Genoa. The Oriental Market in Genoa is possibly the best in Italy. The smells!! We considered Lake Garda but it didn’t make the cut. Sounds like it should not have been cut. But, only so much time.

                      We just got done driving and hiking the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. My bride had heard of John Cabot, but she did not know his REAL name was Giovanni Caboto. I would bet 80-90% of Americans don’t know his real name either.

            2. So, the chip on Joe D’s shoulder came from that dynamic, and grew throughout his life.

              Critics of diMaggio do not present him as combative at all. Quite the contrary, they present him as a man disciplined and formal and (from a young age) canny about ways of protecting his public dignity and his privacy. They also present him as miserly, suspicious, and punctilious. Whether true or not, his critics present his problems in living as in part derived from his sangfoid and his taciturn quality.

              Defenders of diMaggio contend that he failed at being married to two very difficult women (one of whom defeated two other very different men), that his son was a disaster of his own making, and that he was rightly suspicious of people because all to many of those he met were trying to make a buck off him.

              1. Like Joe D, Desperate Susan carries a chip on his/ her shoulder. He/She always has a grievance w/ what someone says and often shows he/she doesn’t know sh!t about what he/she is saying, however always says it eloquently.

                1. At least one full dress biography has been published of diMaggio has been published since his death. I think they do report that Arthur Miller thought him ‘brutal’ because he’d had violent arguments with MM (who was a piece of work in domestic settings). However, their general thesis is that diMaggio had serial broken friendships not because he had a ‘chip on his shoulder’, but because he’d acquired a weird habit and expectation of not paying for much of anything. Vendors were compensated with autographed photos of diMaggio, friends footed the bill, etc. This led to arguments. He also bickered with his brothers about the care and support of their sisters. Not a sweet guy, but not combative.

                  1. Many words, again eloquently, w/ a fundamental flaw; that being an understanding of the term, “chip on the shoulder.” It does not singularly mean “combative.” A person w/ a chip on their shoulder is indeed often combative. But more than combative, it is a person who holds grudges. On the grudge scale, Joe D was a 10.

                    My Italian family worshiped Joe D. My immigrant grandfather owned a restaurant in CT. The Yankee game was always on the radio in the kitchen. Whenever Joe D was at bat, my hard working grandpa would stop working and listen uninterrupted. So, I got the folklore of Joe D; a man w/o question, one of the greatest players of all time. But, I love history and revere truth, being a professional seeker of truth as a PI. I read much about Joe D. However, reading the superb biography, written by Richard Ben Cramer, taught me much about this great player and flawed man. I am quite certain Richard Ben Cramer, who relentlessly researched his subject, would say Joe D did indeed have a chip on his shoulder, a very big chip. I would urge you to read Cramer’s bio. Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you will learn much about SF, Italians, and fame.

                    1. On the grudge scale, Joe D was a 10.

                      No, ‘chip on your shoulder’ means you’re daring someone to knock it off. That was not diMaggio.

      2. the crime and poverty in the former is yuuge, but still nothing like the crime cartels in Sicily

        The homicide rate in the Italian Republic bounces around 0.9 per 100,000. That in greater Naples is about 3.3 per 100,000. There’s a great deal more regional variation in income levels in Italy than there is in the United States, but all parts of Italy have occidental levels of affluence.

  10. So nice to know I am not the only patron of high standards, when it comes to holding my own with my Irish family.!!!
    Happy to know Mrs. Turley is up there too. !!! Not many of us still in existence, regretfully. I intend to pass this article on to my daughter and grandson. It should help them to understand they are not “isolated cases..” when the going gets tough.!
    As for the MOOCH? ……..give me one day with him…!!!

  12. I view Mooch’s statement that he was going to contact some of his “buddies” in the FBI about prosecuting the “leaking” of his publicly available financial form to be far more problematic than his profanity laced interview, which by itself demonstrates a considerable lack of judgment. As usual, many people- including Turley, are spending time chasing shiny objects instead of focusing on bigger problems.

    1. I doubt that even the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem would admit these folks.

  14. First, oh my gosh I LOVE Mrs. Turley! She sounds like a legendary matriarch, and never, ever boring. Plus, I have to admire any dame who is so passionately devoted to her family, and to guarding her precious babies from gastro-intestinal distress caused by too many cookies.

    Spot on analysis of Scaramucci. He could have just as easily said the reporter was a guy, so he thought he could talk like they were just guys in a bar. Seriously? After the past year, he actually thought he could spout off like that and it would be OK? He may be loyal, pugnacious, and great at pushing for a goal, but he lacks tact and wisdom. Hopefully he was sufficiently burned that he’ll never ever make that mistake again. Chalk it up to a learning experience, and may be he wiser today than he was a couple of days ago.

  15. If Anthony Scaramucci thought Lizza was some guy from the old neighborhood, he certainly didn’t know much about him. Starting with the decidedly non-Italian first name of “Ryan,” a little research would have revealed that he graduated from the Berkshire School, a blue-blood boarding school on a leafy 300 acre campus in Mass, followed by college at top-rated U.C. Berkeley. So he’s a son of privilege, and an ambitious reporter to boot. Definitely not someone that I would expect to keep my confidences!!

  16. The use of the standard four letter words is more anglo-saxon followed by European in small amounts than any other area of the world. Most will use a descriptive phrase of the ‘your family was spawned by diseased camels.’ variety. .

  17. As insane as this rant was, what about the President of the United States encouraging violence against citizens by Law Enforcement? Isn’t this inciting a crime? Up until now all the impeachment talk has fallen short, but encouraging brutality against the citizens, encouraging criminal behavior? If a President can be impeached for “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” isn’t inciting violence, unlawful violence a real issue for anyone? Or is it just me that finds this above all else the most disturbing thing the President who I have tried my best to support, one of the most troubling incidents in a long line of incidents and manifestations of a criminal and unbalanced mentality that we have heretofore seen?

    1. No, it’s not a “real issue,” for me, because anyone but the most paranoid among us will realize that Trump was talking to a bunch of cops, trying to relate to them, and joking around. Trump is a salesman by nature, and when he gets with a group, whether cops, military, construction workers, or whomever, he flatters and jokes and tries to show he’s aligned with them. All salesmen do that. And everyone who is being charmed or seduced by a salesman can see exactly what’s going on. When the car salesman is trying to butter me up, no, I don’t take it seriously. It doesn’t bother me. We both know the game, just as the cops did when Trump told them they can take their hand off the arrestee’s head. They’re not really going to do that, so just chill.

      1. So, Trump, Kushner, and Mannafort and Don Jr. can rest easy that if they are arrested, they will be treated with kid gloves? I never doubted it. It is the U.S.
        Convicted financier, Michael Milkin, was treated with kid gloves at Club Fed. Then, he found a way to get tax money by operating schools for profit- the U.S., where only the 99% are made to suffer and “only the stupid pay taxes”.

  18. President Trump has been known to use “locker-room” language.

    It may just be that Scaramucci is President Trump’s “sin-eater.”

    To wit,

    “Turley described U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in an op-ed as President Barack Obama’s sin-eater, writing:

    For Obama, there has been no better sin eater than Holder. When the president promised CIA employees early in his first term that they would not be investigated for torture, it was the attorney general who shielded officials from prosecution. When the Obama administration decided it would expand secret and warrantless surveillance, it was Holder who justified it. When the president wanted the authority to kill any American he deemed a threat without charge or trial, it was Holder who went public to announce the “kill list” policy. Last week, the Justice Department confirmed that it was Holder who personally approved the equally abusive search of Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s e-mail and phone records in another story involving leaked classified information. In the 2010 application for a secret warrant, the Obama administration named Rosen as “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator” to the leaking of classified materials. The Justice Department even investigated Rosen’s parents’ telephone number, and Holder was there to justify every attack on the news media.”

    – Wikipedia-

  19. In a nation where murdering babies, carving them up and selling the parts is defended by the very same people alarmed by foul language; I say you people are some twisted and truly sick characters. Spend time in the military and if you didn’t know cursing, you’ll learn quickly.

    2. I see your point. The thing is, he’s the communications director. He shouldn’t be attracting attention to himself bar the amount of time it takes him to answer the question. If you’re the subject of news stories, you’re doing it wrong.

      1. The thing is, he’s the communications director.

        I haven’t overlooked that point. Early in my Navy career I developed not just the vocabulary for cursing but the sense of timing for when it would be appropriate. The officers, especially those that went to knife and fork school, rarely cursed when around the enlisted. When they did, it was to help make a point that didn’t need further discussion. When I went home at the end of the day I made a conscious decision to not use that language.

        I’ve been around enough Scaramucci’s to know he’s been directed to accomplish something and he’ll burn down the house trying to do just that. I don’t see a lot of humility in the man. He may be just the guy to weed out the leakers, if that is his task. Personally, his language doesn’t bother me. But I do expect professionalism and some sense of restraint from someone in his position. I will say these twits in the briefing room that are more interested in sound bites than actual news don’t deserve the golden retrievers giving the briefings. But apparently that’s all they’ll accept.

  20. Methinks this was a “substance” induced rant. If so, won’t be the last. Once Mnuchin clears the business deal w china that will net mooch millions, he can go back to a job where he won’t need a drug screen.

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