The Washington Post hired a humorist, and just in time. Alexandra Petri has a wicked sense of humor, and some of it may be taken literally when it is satire. You may recall her hilarious article about the “diabolical truth” about Hillary Clinton, which some people took as fact, not satire.

The National Review, the conservative house organ, wrote that Steve Brannon is not a Nazi, but he does have some unfortunate baggage.

Alexandra Petri writes in defense of Steve Bannon, who has been loudly criticized as leader of the alt-right. As editor of Breitbart News, he published articles that were anti-Semitic, racist, and other kinds of “-ist.” He is now President-elect Trump’s chief strategist. This is the same guy who has been quoted saying that he is a “Leninist” and wants to bring down “the system.”

But, writes Petri in his defense, he literally is not Joseph Goebbels.

“Listen, what proof do you have that this dead lizard wrapped in the Confederate flag will not make an excellent chief strategist and senior counselor to the president of the United States?

“I, for one, believe that everyone deserves a chance.

“You’re not wrong that this appears to be a pig’s head slowly rotting on a stake, grotesque insinuations pouring from its mouth as flies buzz around it in the island heat, but I would need to learn more about it, honestly. I’m no expert.”

You say that this man just painted a swastika on a church but — couldn’t it be a plus sign? We don’t know. Some people are better at drawing plus signs than others. I wouldn’t read anything into it. Maybe he just loves churches.”

Alexandra Petri will have a lot to work with these next four years.