Anthony Scaramucci has the well-oiled look of a fellow who would stuff banana skins into the transmission of an elderly car and sell it to you for a premium because the gear change felt so smooth.
You'd expect nothing less of a senior recruit to Donald Trump's White House, but Scaramucci is surely an over-achiever.
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All those not-terribly-ancient tweets of his, now deleted, urging sensible folk not to fall for walls because they don't work, praising a governor for staying out of the "Trump spectacle", supporting Hillary Clinton (though that was way back in 2012), calling for gun control, describing himself as "for gay marriage, against the death penalty, and pro-choice", not to mention praising Islam as a religion of peace. Oh, and dumping on the existence of climate-change deniers as "disheartening".
His appointment as Trump's communications director would, if such a thing were to occur in Australian politics, be as sensational and about as authentic as if Malcolm Turnbull suddenly put Peta Credlin in charge of sharpening his public message.
Credlin, we hasten to reassure, has vastly too much decorum to deserve to be named in the same sentence as the likes of Scaramucci.
The world would stop turning if Credlin were to say of Turnbull, as Scaramucci has of Trump, that "I love the guy".
Scaramucci's creepy declaration of late-found love came in the context of him crawling away from a rant delivered only two years ago in which he called Trump a "hack politician" whose behaviour was "anti-American" and who he predicted would be president of the "Queens County Bullies Association".
This all sounds pretty accurate, but that was then, before he fell in love and got his reward as White House communications director, even if he had to put his $US13 billion hedge fund on the auction block to become eligible.
![Anthony Scaramucci, incoming White House communications director at the daily White House press briefing.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170726222814im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/g/t/x/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxhck7.png/1500878822208.jpg)
It would be wise, you might consider, to check the transmission for banana skins before you bought a used Trump from the good Mr Scaramucci.
Those of a more classic bent might turn their thoughts to the generic clown character known in Italian comedy as Scaramuccia, or Scaramouche or Scaramouch, depending on which program you're reading.
![Peta Credlin is unlikely to declare her love for Malcolm Turnbull.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170726222814im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/5/w/8/c/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxhck7.png/1500878822208.jpg)
You'll find he combines the attributes of both the servant and the masked henchman, who is often given a thrashing for boasting and cowardice. Poor Sean Spicer seemed made for the role - until the actual Scaramucci turned up.