Jared Kushner has only been in Washington for several months, but he's already benefiting from a law of bureaucratic nature: The right rivals make you look good.

In a White House awash in internecine warfare, the most prominent combatant is Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, who has been given a wide-ranging portfolio. Kushner's chief adversary is Steve Bannon, the nationalist champion of the alt-right who says he wants to deconstruct the administrative state. Not surprisingly, the capital establishment, not eager to be deconstructed, despises Bannon and thus puts its hopes on the 36-year-old Kushner.

Kushner's backers, including some closeted Democrats, argue that he's getting Trump to govern in a rational way. Some contend that he'll turn Trump into a mainstream Republican or even persuade the president to return to his roots as a conservative Democrat. Both notions are preposterous. The best critics can hope for is that Kushner will diminish the influence of Trumpist extremists, especially Bannon. The inside-the-Beltway betting is on Kushner.

Internal White House friction isn't unusual and there usually is an establishment favorite. Sometimes the favorite is also the best person: in President Ronald Reagan's White House, for example, the pragmatic Chief of Staff James Baker was more talented than his arch-conservative rival, the White House counselor Ed Meese. In President Bill Clinton's administration, by contrast, the conventional wisdom was that the Washington insider and White House counselor David Gergen would save the president from his inexperienced political aides; that was wrong.

David Fuller's view

Jared Kushner appears to be a great find for Trump and his best asset is his smart, sensible wife, Ivanka Trump.