There you have it. The White House press office is angrier that a crass and tasteless remark by a staffer about an ailing U.S. senator/war hero was leaked than it is about the remark itself.

That’s how I read press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s reported response to the remark.

White House aide Kelly Sadler said in a private meeting that no one should worry about Sen. John McCain’s opinion of CIA director nominee Gina Haspel because “he’s dying anyway.” McCain doesn’t like Haspel’s role in the U.S. campaign of “intense interrogation”; he calls it torture and given his own experience being tortured as a prisoner during the Vietnam War, he hates the idea. Haspel didn’t disavow the interrogation tactics to McCain’s liking and he said so.

That’s when Sadler popped off about McCain’s battle against brain cancer.

Sanders said Sadler’s remarks are “unacceptable” but then reportedly scolded the White House staff for leaking the remark in the first place.

A more appropriate topic to be discussed with White House staffers would be that (a) they are public employees answerable to the taxpayers and that (b) they need to be mindful of all the things they say, even in private.

If a chump like Sadler believes Sen. McCain is “dying anyway,” she is entitled to think those thoughts privately. Many of us out here beyond the Beltway disagree vehemently with her saying it out loud, even in a room full of other White House employees behind closed doors.

I get that Sen. McCain is an imperfect man. He was a rascal while attending the U.S. Naval Academy. He was known during his time as an aviator to be occasionally not play by every rule in the book. But then he got shot down in 1967 and endured more pain, suffering, anguish and heartache than any man should endure during his more than five years as a POW in North Vietnam.

Now he is fighting for his life. He has served with honor and distinction in service to his country for decades.

So, the White House press flack is concerned about the leaks? She should be many times more concerned that a White House staffer has a serious insensitivity streak that needs urgent repair. If she can’t control her mouth, then she needs to find another job.