A “White House official,” according to Politico’s Ben Smith, said on Tuesday that Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner “should have manned-up and run against Michael Bloomberg.” Glenn Greenwald has already noted how hilarious it is for someone to be calling someone else a coward while hiding behind the anonymity Mr. Smith granted him. We just want to add that, while there’s no telling who actually said this, doesn’t it sound, in its huffy pronouncement of a gridiron masculine code, like something Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel might say?

Besides, the boss of this anonymous White House official—President Barack Obama—he could also have “manned-up” and done more for Democratic candidate Bill Thompson than nominally endorse him. Mr. Obama wouldn’t appear with Mr. Thompson, not even once, and this even though the president was stumping just across the Hudson River for another doomed Democratic candidate. Adding insult to injury, Vice President Joseph Biden came to Brooklyn on Monday, and he too avoided Mr. Thompson. And now, after the fact, we know why Mr. Obama wasn’t actively supporting the Democratic candidate in a race to lead the nation’s largest city. The Gray Lady’s Michael Barbaro reported late on Tuesday and to not much notice (the story didn’t make the print edition until Wednesday) some calls were placed from Mr. Bloomberg’s people to Mr. Obama’s people. In October, a deal was struck.