Richard Holbrooke tells Josh Rogin that he isn’t being marginalized by Kerry’s diplomatic intervention in Kabul. OK.

What follows is absolutely not any kind of disrespect to Josh, who’s a good reporter, it’s just me venting. My God, do I hate doing in-the-loop-out-of-the-loop stories. So rarely do they actually signify anything. Just Washington parlor game nonsense. Gossip is beneath the dignity of adults. Not everything is zero-sum. If Holbrooke was actually considered useless, he’d be fired, and he still has a job, so just move on with this.

Again, not anything against Josh, since Lord knows I’ve gritted my teeth and written these stories too.