Comparing Calvinball — a game wherein the permanent rule is that you may not play the Calvinball the same way twice and the primary rule is that the rules are subject to be changed, amended, or deleted by any player(s) involved — to contemporary politics has become something of a tradition at Balloon Juice.
Calvinball season is in full swing: there has been much gnashing of teeth over the fact that Leon Panetta is not a career intelligence person, but the career intel rule seems to have been invented over the past few days. Matt Y notes:
this idea that the CIA Director needs to be a career intelligence professional seems to have been pulled out of thin air. Porter Goss wasn’t a career intel guy. Neither was George Tenet. Neither was John Deutsch. Neither was James Woolsey. Nor William Webster. Nor George H.W. Bush.
And while we’re at it, shame on Ben Smith who writes of DiFi’s opposition to Panetta:
That seems to reflect the view inside the CIA, and suggests a tough confirmation hearing.
I like Ben Smith, but I seriously doubt he has many sources inside the CIA. David Ignatius, who does (even if he’s a jackass in many ways), writes that the pick is viewed positively at Langley (as the kids like to say).
Another new rule: people who have been on television should not serve in the cabinet. This is courtesy of Jay Newton-Small.
Gupta is an accomplished surgeon, Emory University medical professor and award-winning journalist, who has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the tsunami in Sri Lanka. He’s also not totally unpolitical, having served as a White House fellow in 1997 and as an advisor to Hillary Clinton.
But picking a television personality — and here I mean no disrespect, the guy is clearly a multi-tasking genius — leaves the door open for a just a tiny bit of mockery. Judge Judy for the Supreme Court? Rachel Ray for White House chef? Flava Flav to head the the DEA! And, hey, Law & Order was one of Fred Thompson’s top credentials in his presidential run.
That’s right, picking a professor of neurosurgery as Surgeon General is like picking a guy who wears a Viking helmet around in public as head of the DEA. And, for Christ’s sake, when it comes to the White House chef, is there any well-known chef who doesn’t appear regularly on tv at this point? I’ve seen Thomas Keller and Eric Ripert on morning shows: does that mean they wouldn’t be qualified to be White House chefs?
Update: A doctor friend of mine just told me she considers this pick a slap in the face to the medical community.
Update update: Whenever I use the phrase “slap in the face”, I am snarking.
John Cole
That Jay Newton-Small piece needs to be added to a draft post so we can store it for the stupidest thing said by someone in the media in 2009.
DougJ
It’s pretty amazing. She beings by admitting that he has the perfect qualifications for the job, then opposes the pick.
Tom Levenson
You are off to a fine start. Thanks for the Calvinball reminder.
May the Headless Snowman ride!
Bob In Pacifica
Porter Goss was CIA. As far as how long his career was, well, that’s always a secret, isn’t it?
Remember, the legend is that George H W Bush had no connection to the CIA before he was named to its directorship in ’76. Believe that and I’ve got a book depository to sell you.
Davex99
I’ve only lately become aware of the concept where Obama needs to disappoint the progressives to prove his ‘post-partisan’ credentials. It’s amusingly called ‘Punching a Hippie in the Face’.
I’d like to point to it’s corollary in the Panetta nomination. It’s when the Democratic Establishment is pissed off by something the new administration does.
I’d like to call it ‘Smearing Dog Shit on a Villager’s Nice Clean Suit’. That’s a little long, though.
Whatever we call it, I now can experience the same gleeful schadenfreude the Village feels when Obama disappoints us, the DFHs.
DougJ
In fairness, in this case, the Village media (Ignatius is practically mayor) is acting strangely sanely.
DougJ
Fair enough, but neither was picked from within the CIA. And Panetta’s time as Chief of Staff gave him some exposure to intelligence as well (e.g. the PDB).
TheHatOnMyCat
I think Panetta is a great choice. He is the consummate Washington guy, knows how to play all the games, runs a tight ship, brings ethics to work with him every day.
The fact that he is an intel outsider is a plus as far as I am concerned. Doug, you and I talked last summer about how the chattering community is a threat to democracy. I think this Panetta episode is a good example of that in action. Instead of talking about the pros and cons of a non-insider getting this post, they are talking about ….. hurt feelings, as near as I can figure out. As if the hurt feelings of a fucking crazy person like Diane Feinstein should have sway in our government. Or our discourse.
Stay on this subject, it’s a good one.
Reverend Dennis
By all means, let’s put an experienced intelligence professional in charge of the CIA. We can select from the ones who helped set up the para-military death squads in Central America, or the ones who missed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Or how about the ones who failed to prevent 9/11? Then there are the ones who overlooked the fact that Saddam had no WMD’s and that there were a number of religious and political factions that would make life hell in Iraq if Saddam fell. If none of those are suitable then we can select from the many who participated in kidnapping, torture, and secret prisons.
If we can’t have sound experience and good judgment then at least we can have complicity – right? That alone would make any number of currently serving pols rest much easier.
The Other Steve
Isn’t the role of Surgeon General primarily to go on TV and talk about medical stuff?
Oh yeah, I think they also give keynote addresses.
DougJ
Well, I think most of them still use PowerPoint.
Remember, though, it’s a serious position and serious people don’t appear on television.
thomas
it appears that Norm Coleman is a master at Calvin Ball
jibeaux
I thought Ezra’s thoughts on Gupta were interesting. I don’t personally remember any S.G.’s except for C. Everett Koop (mostly because my hubby liked to say "C. Everett Koop. Koop, Everett, Koop!" — I know, but he has lots of other redeeming qualities), oh and the short-lived masturbation lady. I guess I don’t actually remember her name. I remember thinking Clinton was a total coward, though, over that. Either that or he just really finds masturbation wholly inadequate…?
anonevent
This is all just a bunch of "you didn’t come to me to make your appointment for you, so I’m mad." Obama’s already had to deal with this from his true supporters (see Warren) and so a sniveling Wormtongue response from DiFi is nothing.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@TheHatOnMyCat:
I think it’s THE threat, and the damage may already by too great. I work with several people who know nothing of current events except what they "learn" from 9 hours/day of Boortz, Limbaugh, and Hannity.
I see no way to reverse this. Cable news is 24/7/365. You can’t just say "Obama chose Leon Panetta" (i.e. "reporting news") and then sit and stare off into space. Controversy and conflict must be created out of thin air. Talk radio would not exist without vitriol. I’ve tried to listen to Air America, but it’s deadly boring.
The only hope? That, by magic, every know-nothing goober wakes up some morning and thinks "I’m tired of being a moran". Otherwise, I got nuthin’.
DougJ
That’s what I believe too. I’m not sure how we can deal with it, except to say that we need both the carrot and the stick. Just saying they all suck won’t quite cut it — there needs to be some kind of system of rewards and punishment. That’s why the success of Maddow and Olbermann (even though he’s a bit of a blowhard) gives me some hope.
Will
NYT says Surgeon General isn’t cabinet-level, anyway.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/cnn-medical-correspondent-as-surgeon-general/
sgwhiteinfla
I post at Swampland quite a bit and a lot of my fellow commenters were giving JNS the business yesterday, but I just didn’t get the fuss then and I don’t get it now. She made sure that she laid out his qualifications plainly and even said she wasn’t trying to disrespect. I took it as that she was saying they guy being all over Tee Vee could open the pick up for some jokes. Not that the pick itself is a joke. I can pretty much guarantee that Late Night talk show hosts are going to have a ball with his selection. Now mind you I have called JNS out on more than one occasion, especially when she posted an intellectually dishonest account of what why President Elect Obama reacted the way he did on Halloween when he was walking with his daughter and even the extent of what he did. But I just don’t think there is any there, there this time.
If Bush had chosen Gupta wouldn’t we be making at least a FEW jokes about it?
Michael D.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is one of the most accomplished neurosurgeons in the world, let alone America. That alone though is meaningless when it comes to being surgeon general.
What DOES matter is the person’s ability to inspire people to live healthy, active lives – to take care of themselves and to become better as a country.
Gupta does this in SPADES.
People who are trying to bury him really piss me off. Here we have a guy who would be the PERFECT choice for SG – and he’s being dissed on because he’s on TV?
It is quite possibly the stupidest criticism I have ever heard.
Good thing we’ve never elected an actor to be president. Even worse would be if we’d elected one who co-starred with monkeys or something.
Fuckers.
Fwiffo
Actually, I would approve of a choice of Flava Flav to head the DEA. It’s the second most worthless institution in the Federal government after the Senate. It could really use some flava.
You can tell a lot about a pick by exactly who opposes it. By that standard, Leon Panetta is destined to be fucking great.
jibeaux
I am reminded of a succinct Onion headline: Drugs Win Drug War.
DougJ
There’s a difference between a bunch of basement dwellers typing what they know are jokes with cheetoh-stained fingers and a journalist at a major glossy writing that Gupta’s tv presence disqualifies him. No?
DougJ
Does that mean you can be on tv and still serve as SG?
Will
No, I think I’d be calling it inspired–one of his few clever decisions.
jibeaux
Sorry, I was trying to actually link to Ezra, not that you guys aren’t perfectly capable of the Google and probably have like 4,000 friends on the Facebook and use the Twitter and all…
And there’s an update about Moore v. Gupta, which I don’t give a rat’s ass about because despite presumably having lots of philosophical agreement with Michael Moore, I just find him an insufferable and intellectually dishonest douchebag. I mean, I’m totally against majority public opinion on gun control, if I had my druthers would evaporate all handguns and all that, but when he tried to blame Dick Clark for the death of a kid living with his uncle who kept guns in Bowling for Columbine (which was capped off with a line that made it sound like only elitist rich people who don’t care about kids buy fudge in malls), I thought that was kind of stretch, you know?
Will
Of course not. The Constitution explicitly forbids that.
jibeaux
I wouldn’t, myself….call it low expectations, but any M.D. pick by Bush who doesn’t think that birth control pills kill babies is gravy to me.
Will
Gravy kills babies.
Napoleon
Gupta is a brilliant choice. He will get plenty of air time to sell Obama’s health care package and he will make the most of it. I bet there is not another person in the whole country that would have been a better choice.
bago
What about baby batter?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Um, the Viking helmet analogy ain’t a good one. Remember that Alan Page is a member of the MN Supreme Court, well respected an all of that. Ifns I remember correctly, he wore a Viking helmet back in the day.
Oh, you meant Norse/Danish/Swedish Vikings.
Nevermind.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Looks like the Dems are going to seat Burriss.
Dubya, eager to be a total dick one last time, made two little girls go sleep in a hotel (yeah, I know, a very nice hotel) for two weeks so that the ex-PM of Australia could hang at Blair House. Didja know: Blair House has 119 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and is Secret Service approved. George W: wanker to the bitter end.
YellowJournalism
W just didn’t want the Obamas to find his secret stash.
Michael D.
Do you seriously think this is worthy of a comment? Do you honestly think Bush thought, “How can I fuck over the Obama kids?”
Please. There’s 8 years of idiocy to criticize him for. The White House is the president’s to do with as he sees fit until January 20.
A total non-issue.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@Michael D.:
Cranky this morning? I was being hyperbolic, which I know is unheard of in blog commenting.
Actually, I think he thought "How can I fuck with Barack Obama", and it seems as worthy of a comment as anything, esp. in a thread that includes Flava Flav.
dr. bloor
Well, then tell her to think of it as inspired act on Obama’s part to get a small-screen charlatan out of the OR and off the teevee for the next eight years.
I like the pick. Who does your friend prefer–another well-connected Navy lifer that no one’s ever heard of before and never will again once he/she is out of office?
James F. Elliott
Thus giving rise forever to one of our finest euphemisms: Firing the Surgeon General.
Will
Why is C. Everett Koop burned forever in my consciousness? Is it the beard?
PK
You haven’t been hearing too much criticism then. There has been nothing but constant bitching, moaning, whining and complaining about something or the other, and most of it astoundingly stupid. And all this even before Obama takes charge. I have been following politics only for a few years, so I did not have the pleasure of listening to the democrats when they were in power. The so called lefty blogs like to call themselves the reality based community. But its the reality based community with unrealistic expectations! They want everything and they want it now. And they will screw Obam worse than the republicans if they don’t get their way.
I thought Gupta was a good pick. The SG explains the administrations health policies. Who better than a smart articulate neurosurgeon who is instantly recognizable. Its not like he is undertaking health care reform. But no, OMG he dissed our local hero Michael Moore, he comes on T.V and we hate celebrities , he is a corporate shill, he is a big pharma whore, in short he is not exactly what I/we want him to be.
No wonder Obama is reaching out to the republicans. He knows where his real enemies are.
The only two blogs (out of the ones I read) which have kept their sanity so far is this one and TPM. Although in a few years I expect John Cole to say-screw this, I am going back to being a republican.
Andrew
Am I the only one who thinks that Flava Flav would be a totally awesome pick for head of the DEA?
Martin
Yeah, but also to help the president set health care priorities. Gupta isn’t a bad choice at all, but most doctors will hate the pick because it suggests that none of them, not being on TV, are qualified.
Personally, I’d rather see Dr. Drew Pinsky as the TV personality-doctor choice. This country really doesn’t energy focused on neurosurgery or most areas of traditional medicine – the medical community is doing an excellent job of advancing their field, and the public accepts their work, as they do with most traditional medicine. However, this country has pretty serious problems with substance abuse, understanding of (and ability to speak openly about) sexual problems, and psychological matters. That’s really where the country needs to make progress (as well as getting more people into reasonably affordable safety nets). Drew has been the voice on those topics in SoCal for ages and is very good at engaging the public.
Dreggas
@Andrew:
Nope, I think he’d be perfect, that or the entire crew from Cypress Hill. Legalize it…
ricky
Sanjay Gupta, Flava Flav, Judge Judy, and Rachel Ray all disqualified due to television appearances? So much for that Al Franken dude. And Reagan. Stick with the mule team, Bonzo! Me, I’m up with Richard Simmons for White House Council on Physical Fitness as long as he doesn’t go to the inaugural Invocation.
rachel
@dr. bloor: No, picking Dr. Phil would have been a slap in the pace. This is more like, I dunno, a poke in the ribs. (Come to think of it, getting that jackass of my TV would improve my mental health somewhat. What the heck was Oprah thinking when she decided to inflict him on the viewing public?)
bartkid
>Another new rule: people who have been on television should not serve in the cabinet.
Whoever on The View who makes Elisabeth Hasselbeck pout the most still has my vote for FCC Chair.
ricky
Actually he could have done that by appointing an osteopath.
mey
Thank you!! I’ve been feeling like the only sane person in a room full of crazy people lately. Thank you for pointing out the ridiculousness (from the "left" and the "right").
ricky
As a member of the "so-called" community, I would like to know who appointed the callers. We have the right to choose who among you gets to use the ‘so" prefix.
ricky
Dr. Joycelyn Elders is, in fact, quite alive (as is crusty old Doc Koop). Ironically, the public spokesperson for her firing for saying masturbation was a good form of birth control was Leon Panetta. Obviously the president followed her advice despite yanking her as a crank. Ironically she got her undergraduate degree from Philander Smith and an honorary degree from Bates.
gogiggs
Well, Andrew beat me to saying it and Dreggas beat me to agreeing with it, but count me in.
Michael D.
Yes. And he is doing those “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up(R)” commercials now.
Singularity
Yes. I do. This is the same guy who mocked a woman on death row because she had generated some bad press for him. He is a petty, petulant child.
On the other hand and to be fair, Bush obviously doesn’t understand the importance that a stable and steady routine plays in the lives and education of young daughters. Look how the little whores he raised turned out.
dr. bloor
Hey, gotta give well-earned props to Koop. Remember how the left initially went batshit over his appointment? And then remember how the RoboCons who were all for Koop’s appointment went batshit when he decided to do his job, and began advocating the use of condom advertisements on teevee when no one else in the Raygun administration could even bring themselves to utter the word "AIDS?"
I’ll gladly help his ass off the floor if he falls, anytime, anywhere.
C
Can you update with her rationale for that? "Someone said ‘I am OUTRAGED’ " really doesn’t explain anything and comes off confusing, unless she’s just outraged at anything Obama does. If she has no justification for the kneejerking, why should we care, and why should you take her seriously? We’re not talking about Deepak Chopra or Andrew Weil here, we’re talking about a real doctor with a huge knowledgebase and a real desire and ability to connect with the public.
Better than a vaccine denialist, I suppose. Haven’t they at this point divorced themselves from all the subluxation bullshit?
It’s all about context, I suppose. With Bush, there’s always an angle, and I would be even more suspicious of something that didn’t immediately come off as partisan, polarizing, petty. or otherwise mishandled. I’m more willing to think creatively about ways in which Obama may be intending to use a person, simply because there’s less of a reptile-brain involved in his decisions.
Also, DiFi can suck it. We obviously need more CIA officers involved in dirty tricks, murders, terrorizing and destabilizing the world making the rules, rather than someone who CARES about our country’s security from enemies (inside and out!) capable of driving an actual vision rather than parroting the same fistpumping drivel.
flavortext
@Will:
"All. Senior. Citizens. Should. Have. Life. Alert!"
Don
Yeah I don’t understand why anyone has a big issue with this (still supposedly only a possible) pick. The job’s largely PR and he’s good at talking to the world. He’s an MD and presumably – given his tv work – somewhat aware of nation-wide health issues and challenges.
Maybe neurosurgery wouldn’t have been the specialty I’d have thought would mesh well with this job but it doesn’t seem to be what’s pissing people off.
Neue Internetprasenz
Give him another 20 years and he’ll be doing Life-Alert commercials.
Blue Raven
@C:
Aside from how osteopathy isn’t chiropractic medicine, both groups don’t use that word (unless the latter is an old-school "we cure everything" chiropractor instead of the modern "we help ease pain without surgery" type).
onceler
aw, come on, can you really not see how this is mock-worthy? first of all, I’ve seen Gupta, credentials or no, make many completely bunk, demonstrably untrue statements about various medical matters. whether about insurance, manipulation of the insurance process, drugs, alcohol, etc.
I’m just getting to a saturation point with these corny celebrity appointments. this guy traded in serious medicine to be a commentator, and he doesn’t deserve the position any more than Deepak Chopra does, and that’s for real.
jibeaux
Her tenure wasn’t, was my point. I am actually spectacularly bad at tracking who and who isn’t alive, but I wasn’t making an attempt to opine on the topic there…
Thlayli
It would be nice if people would spell Rachael Ray’s name right.
dr. bloor
Except for his continuing to practice and publish, along with his stint as a White House Fellow with Hillary Clinton in the 90’s, you’re absolutely right.
BC
What’s this "deserve the position" mean? The job of surgeon general in this day and age, as others have pointed out, is to be a spokesman for good health practices. It’s more a communications job than it is a practicing medicine job. For example, Koop nagged the public on smoking and had some success reducing smoking – at least, he was able to get media coverage on the problem. Gupta will be able to get media coverage on health problems in our day – probably will be obesity. But "deserve"? No one "deserves" a position in any administration – the president appoints those he wants to be in his administration. Get off this "deserves" shit.
Wile E. Quixote
DougJ @ 2 wrote:
It’s obvious that she’s practicing writing contrarian articles for Slate just in case things fall through at Time.
DougJ
@C
I was snarking. Whenever I use the phrase "slap in the face", it’s snark.
Just Some Fuckhead
Bush wouldn’t have picked Gupta. He’d have picked the ship’s doctor from Love Boat, after getting a nice referral from Gopher.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead: Oh how I miss you when you’re away.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: And me, you. Or vice versa. Whichever way means I miss you when you’re away. And I miss you prolly more than you miss me, because I’m not generally affirming your worth like you are mine although I realize while typing this, I should be. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions or other typically traditional Holidaic things (weird aside: I do eat blackeyed peas on New Years day because that’s supposed to be good luck so I made up a big pot of ’em on New Years day but I took one two many oxycontins and got too sick to eat by New Year’s Day evening, so.. the next day, I heated ’em up to have anyway and I burnt ’em up. So I’m thinking 2009 is going to really suck.) but I’m going to make a belated New Year’s resolution to affirm you more.
Everyone loves you. Here’s a song, the theme of which you may recognize from an earlier conversation. Shhhhh.
jon
So Obama’s going to put a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist into the cabinet meetings. Where will Poindexter, Wormser, Lamar, Booger, and Ogre get to sit?
Nerds!
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead: Is it a bad sign that I interpret expressions of warmth and civility on this site as mocking and taunting?
I hate what I’ve become, Fuckhead. I probably need to be over on the Oprah.com boards.
Affirm Me NOW!
(Excellent song choice for purposes previously discussed. Shhhhh.)
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W:
I think a certain level of cynicism is healthy. I fully expected that response which was why I included the song link, sort of an investment in trust. :)
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I do have my
stalkersfans.shhhhh…
Marshall
I would like to nominate Bill Maher to be head of the DEA. I am pretty sure that he doesn’t wear any Viking helmets.
Marshall
It would be a very good thing if we never had.
DougJ
@LauraW
No. It shows that you’re not an idiot.