The unasked question is why the first lady’s top aide was one of the most intimidating White House powerbrokers.

For a conservative commentator, there’s nothing quite like that rush of elation that courses through your otherwise impenetrably hardened heart when several of your regular beats unexpectedly and hilariously collide with one another. (A caged bird from Gary Larson’s The Far Side expresses this sentiment better than I ever could hope to: “All right!”) A brief word then, about the latest minor development on three separate topics I have written about, as they all bonk heads simultaneously: the conspiracy to hide Joe Biden’s decay, our dear old friend David Hogg, and the general theme of “Dems in disarray.”

Surely Hogg needs no introduction, given that I’ve been abusing him over the last few months in these pages like he owes me money. (In fact, here he is again today making an appearance!) But Hogg makes his own news, too; he’s a chatty guy, apparently. In fact, one of the reasons he won his position as vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee was his purported skill at gladhanding and talking to “the young people” — meeting them on their level at any time, in any place, and speaking their language.

That of course makes him easy fodder for the likes of Project Veritas, which predictably infiltrated an agent into his midst at some bar or another and got Hogg to admit on camera that it was an “open secret” in Democratic circles that Jill Biden’s top aide Anthony Bernal called an enormous number of shots during the Biden administration, and in many ways was one of the most powerful decision-makers in Washington, D.C. “I can’t stress to you enough that Jill Biden’s chief of staff [sic] had an enormous amount of power,” says Hogg. (“He’s a shadowy, Wizard of Oz-type figure,” another DNC staffer helpfully adds off-camera.)

This, of course, is absolutely no surprise to anyone who has read Original Sin (a book that I twice discussed last week), where Bernal features as one of the chief villains: a pompously sneering martinet imbued with a fey, thuggish energy, hammering all around him relentlessly on behalf of his all-powerful capo di tutti capi, First Lady Jill Biden. The authors of Original Sin take an entire page to discuss just how loathed Bernal was by nearly every other person in the White House, not just for his officiousness, but his incompetence as well. (“He would not be welcome at my funeral” was the verdict from one longtime Biden aide.)

The unasked question, of course, is why the first lady’s top aide was one of the most intimidating White House powerbrokers of the last few decades or so. What business should the mechanics of politics or governance be to any first lady? The answer to that question is meant to be inferred, even if it is not proven: Bernal served a more influential master than any of President Biden’s actual appointees.

Anthony Bernal was powerful because he was purely the creature (and creation) of Jill Biden; he is an extension of her will and ego far more than he has ever been his own man. Throughout Original Sin he speaks with the authoritative voice of Jill Biden in all meetings and regularly uses the threat of her displeasure (“Jill will not like this”) to instantly end debates. You can get away with this kind of behavior only if (1) you are faithfully serving the will of your master; (2) your master is actually the most powerful person in the government — or at least one of them.

Needless to say, nobody elected Jill Biden — or even appointed her. But the degree to which she decided she had a right to become a politician — in lieu of her husband’s failing faculties — is notable in the recent journalistic accounts: She began demanding briefing books and talking points for her public appearances on political matters in a manner reserved for the president alone and infamously had a photograph posted to Instagram of her “prepping for the G7” meeting despite having absolutely no proper role there whatsoever. With the president’s downward slide accelerating, it’s hard not to believe that Dr. Jill was preparing to take even greater control over the political course of a second Biden term.

So I don’t actually think David Hogg has anything to feel embarrassed about in this situation. If there is one thing I suspect neither Democratic voters, nor activists, nor even the party faithful themselves will hold against Hogg, it’s throwing Anthony Bernal and Jill Biden under the bus. (Hogg’s problem is everything else.) I’m going to miss the kid so much.