ArcaMax

Poor Susie Wiles. Someone has to take the fall for the disaster, even if this is one case where the fish really does rot from the head. When you lose by this much, it's not a strategic failure. It's not because you have the wrong staff. Besides, I'm sure Susie didn't tell him to close his midterm campaign with reflections on the reflecting pool (and his construction projects) and to ignore people's concerns about affordability. By all reports, she managed the president with greater discipline than her predecessors, but she was sitting in the hot seat, and that's what happens.

But blaming her for influencing policy with fundraising concerns? I almost have to laugh. She was doing her job. That it can't withstand public scrutiny tells you everything that is wrong about our politics.

The latest controversy grows out of an interview Calley Means, who resigned as a top federal health official two weeks ago, gave to Joe Rogan in which he accused Wiles of bowing to "unrelenting" pressure from industry lobbyists, effectively prioritizing political fundraising over Americans' health. Mr. Means said that Wiles withheld support from his efforts to make children's diets healthier, citing the need for sugar industry money. He said her team demanded more approvals of flavored e-cigarettes, which was a top priority for tobacco companies. And he said she gave in to heavy lobbying from the kratom industry to relax proposed restrictions on these dangerous drugs.

"Susie said to me many times: 'We need money for the midterms, Calley. We need money for the midterms,'" Mr. Means said.

Shocking. Money buys influence. Money shapes policy. It is the job of the president's top aide to safeguard the sources of money. This is all about power, and how it's wielded in politics today. It is about everything that is wrong with Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that opened the spigots for the unlimited flow of money into the swamp.

What Susie Wiles was doing was arguably her job. In a corrupt system, there are no heroes.

Mr. Means described how some of his efforts to draft policies to make the food supply healthier were thwarted, such as one aimed at pushing the food industry to address whether the amount of sugar in children's diets was appropriate.

"And that's where Susie told me we can't do that," Mr. Means said. "'I need the sugar industry money.'"

Mr. Means also said that Dr. Marty Makary, the former FDA commissioner, was "pounded" in numerous meetings to approve flavored e-cigarettes, which James Blair, a former deputy of Ms. Wiles, framed as "a core midterm issue."

Todd Blanche, the attorney general, defended Wiles. Asked if there was anything to investigate, he demurred. "There was a podcaster. There was somebody who went on a podcast and said that Susie Wiles put some other priorities over the president. I could not disagree with that more," Blanche told CNN Sunday. "I say that as the attorney general."

Blanche took the same approach on "Fox News Sunday," saying that allegations of Wiles's "financial maneuverings" did not concern him.

Why would they? Unless you're concerned about the corrupting force of money in politics, and how it has increased exponentially since the spigots were opened and the amounts you need to raise went up exponentially. Mr. Means tried to make the larger points in the podcast, but of course the headlines were the attack on Wiles. That's also how politics works. There's a reason these industries give so much money. They get what they pay for.

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