Muckety-Mucks
I’ve always liked the term “muckety-muck”, meaning an important and often arrogant person. To me, it strikes the right balance of respect and disdain (i.e., about 20% respect and 80% disdain). According to Merriam-Webster, muckety-muck is derived from jargon of the (Native American) Chinook of the Pacific Northwest.
Now we have a graphical aid for evaluating just how high a high muckety-muck is. I am referring to MucketyMaps available on muckety.com. Muckety describes itself as an objective news site that offers MucketyMaps that show relationships for people and organizations. To call up a MucketyMap, you enter the name of a person or organization. The map is presented as a static image at first. When you then click on the map, it becomes interactive, assuming your browser is Java-enabled. Here, for example, is the map for newly-appointed Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Rahm Emanuel MucketyMap
As Obama continues to appoint aids and cabinet members, and as the Republicans begin to reshape themselves with what I assume will be new leaders, I think I will be calling up some more maps.