What Kind Of White House Aide Allows His Intern To Do This?

Brad Jenkins may wind up being the best known contestant for this year’s “50 Most Beautiful People” list in The Hill.

But not because he’s so Brad Pitt hot. Rather, because he appears to have allowed his intern to use a White House celebrity and artist outreach distribution list to help land him a “People’s Choice” spot in this year’s beauty contest. The news was first reported by BuzzFeed Tuesday.

Since then, Jenkins, an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement, has gotten a boatload of shit for all the self-promotion. And soon enough, he locked up his Twitter account.

Here’s Dee Dee Benkie, a TV and radio commentator.

A feed called @Fenway_Nation was even more harsh: “I already nominated Brad Jenkins for ‘Political Hack I’d Most like to Shove Down a Flight of Stairs.'” Ouch!

But seriously, what’s Washington without self-promotion? And where would we be if interns didn’t suck up every once in awhile?

I think I’ll give the intern the benefit of the doubt, however, that he or she had guidance in the matter. Even if the intern didn’t, would a White House intern ever be canned for pushing his boss’s beauty?

See the intern’s letter, which clearly mixes White House business with White House pleasure. The subject line is the best: “White House Artists – For Brad.”