John Podesta enjoyed slaughtering Pigs while in college

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John Podesta, a seasoned hand
By MARIAN BURROS 07/10/09 12:03 AM EDT

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His heritage, he once told an interviewer, also explains his hot temper and accounts for the occasional appearance of Skippy, his sarcastic and ill-humored alter ego.

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Talk of pig roasting and slaughter kept popping up during dinner and was the last tale Podesta told before the guests left. To earn money while attending law school at Georgetown, he spent two years working at Turkey Run Farm in McLean, now called the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, an 18th-century re-creation.

He dressed in britches, a blousy linen shirt, floppy hat and homemade shoes and learned how to butcher and roast a pig.

Standing in the kitchen and acting out his role, Podesta explained: “It’s best to do the butchering at 4 a.m., “because pigs should be slaughtered when it is cool, and it takes a long time to roast them. The pig is hauled on a front-end loader in order to split and gut it. It’s most important to slow the pig down by shooting it between the eyes so you can cut its throat. It makes the pig less ornery and a whole lot more cooperative than if you just stick a knife in its throat.”

In homage to these skills, Podesta used to have a picture of a pig on a spit as his screen saver, but his staffers made him get rid of it, because he said: “They couldn’t stand looking into the pig’s eyes during meetings.”

The powerful John Podesta does not always get his way.

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John Podesta Talks About His “Evil Twin” Skippy

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To fully understand how John Podesta is managing the complex Democratic takeover of the federal government, you have to be familiar with Skippy, the evil twin.
Anyone who has worked for Podesta in the past decade knows Skippy, who first appeared during Podesta’s eventful years as chief of staff in the Clinton White House. As scandal rocked the end of that presidency, staffers knew they had better come prepared to meetings. Otherwise, nurturing mentor John would be replaced by Skippy — Podesta’s quick-tempered, edgy and sarcastic alter ego.
“You haven’t seen him in this meeting, have you?” the transition co-chairman for Barack Obama says with a laugh, noting that many a reporter has met Skippy.
“I’m half Greek and half Italian, and you would expect that I would have a hot temper,” he says in an interview at the downtown transition office, where the tightly wound, wiry operative is building a government. “I like people to perform at a high level.” He likens his operating style to a loud, ethnic family dinner. “Sometimes our emotions get expressed, but we all love each other and we all are trying to help each other succeed.”
That sentiment is pretty much echoed by those who have worked with and for Podesta over his three decades in Washington — most of whom are now lining up for jobs. “Let’s say my in-box is filled,” he says with a wide grin.

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Skippy in Brooklyn

From:jennifer.m.palmieri@gmail.com

To: dleger@americanprogress.org, annasoellner@gmail.com, andrea.purse@gmail.com, eryn.sepp@gmail.com CC: john.podesta@gmail.com

Date: 2015-06-02 22:15 Subject: Skippy in Brooklyn

Another fun night at HRC's HQ.

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muh squirtin

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Let me guess, long time lurker first time poster?

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I have it embedded in the big thread (just not well labeled)

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Trump does not have the political capital currently to go directly after the bigger fish (would literally be labeled a strongman/dictator by a naive public/opponents)

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