Is $172,000 a Year 'Relatively Modest'?

That's the question Ed O'Keefe asks in the Washington Post today. He notes that when President Obama thanked outgoing press secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday, he said Gibbs has "had a six-year stretch now where basically he's been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay." The White House spokesman, as one of the top administration officials, makes $172,000 a year.

Obama no doubt meant that someone of Gibbs' stature and experience could make a lot more money in the private sector. (And remember, Gibbs and other senior officials already have been through their pay freeze.) Still, in an age when federal employees and managers who make far less than the White House press secretary are characterized as overpaid relative to their private sector counterparts, the president might want to think twice about using terms like "modest" to describe the salaries of his key aides -- who are at or near the top of the federal pay scale.

Or, as O'Keefe delicately put it, "Obama might express his comments on Gibbs differently if given the opportunity."