Highly visible among the hacks who are now in charge of US foreign policy (such luminaries as Ben Rhodes and Susan Rice) is Jen Psaki, official spokesperson for the United States Department of State. Psaki is now an object of ridicule on Russian television, which has created the word “psaking” to describe “when someone makes a dogmatic statement about something they don’t understand, mixes facts up, and then doesn’t apologize.”

Buzzfeed reports:

Kremlin propaganda chief Dmitry Kiselyov dedicated an entire segment of his show to “Psaking,” which he claimed is a “new buzzword that has appeared on the spaces of the global internet.”

While Russian propagandists are not generally to be trusted, Psaki has handed ample ammunition for ridicule to Kiselyov and company:

…during a press conference, Psaki criticized the phenomenon of “carousel voting” at a separatist referendum in eastern Ukraine, before admitting that she didn’t know what the term meant.

Mouthing a talking point without understanding its meaning gets to the heart of being a hack, much as Susan Rice did with her “served with honor and distinction” praise for Bowe Bergdahl.

As Ed Lasky has chronicled on these pages, Psaki's background as a campaign aide to Obama ill-qualifies her for her serious diplomatic responsibilities.  But in the Obama administration, political loyalty trumps expertise every time, even in the most sensitive positions.