Despite TV, little known about Gupta
Gupta is registered to vote in Georgia, which does not have party registration, and he does not appear to have voted in partisan primaries. And Martin Matheny, a spokesman for the Georgia Democratic Party, said Gupta hasn't been involved in party politics in the state.Still, Carson said "I'm sure Sanjay is a Democrat and I don't doubt that he's sympathetic to a general Democratic approach (on healthcare)."
Related: Conyers: Gupta not up to S.G. post
23 Responses to “Gupta”
I'm with Conyers and Krugman on this. The hitjob he did on SiCKO ended up being nothing more than reading PhRMA talking points, and while there's no doubt he's a qualified doctor, there's plenty of qualified doctors out there who aren't shills for the pharmaceutical industry. Why not the PNHP president instead?
I'm more into seeing who the next NASA director is going to be ever since I heard Griffin is going to get booted.
Since when has GW headed NASA? I thought he hadn't finished at Tech?
You do realize the SG is supposed to educate and inform the public about the President's health policy so it would be good to have someone who works well on TV in that role. Additionally, SG reports to Dir of HHS (I believe) so its not as if he is formulating policy.
Sorry for the triple post but if he has shown he's a good shill that basically says he's qualified for the post.
He has to oversee 6,000 doctors and it's not accurate to say he doesn't formulate policy.
The SG doesn't oversee squat except his/her own office. The *only* time that the SG can have any sort of authority over the PHS Corps is during a national emergency. The SG, however, does promote policy, and if the SG goes off the reservation, he/she can be fired for it. See Elders, Jocelyn.
I found through reading that they usually are advocates for health system reform, and he was shown to be quite clueless on the issue when he debated Michael Moore on Larry King. That's probably why single payer advocates like Krugman and Conyers oppose him.
Certainly there's a more qualified person somewhere other than Celebrity Doctor Guy.
Also, it doesn't matter if the Surgeon General is known or not no one ever knows them.
Also, it doesn't matter if the Surgeon General is known or not no one ever knows them.
Yeah, I mean.. if they were going to get a Celebrity Doctor, they should gone after Dr. Robert Rey!
Quite honestly, he has no background in public health. He's a fine doctor, but there's also thousands of doctors who have extensive public health experience. They should get the job.
The fact that Obama got more money from HMO's and the pharmaceutical industry than his opponent has to pay for something, I'm thinking Gupta and Podesta (didn't wait a single year before ending tenure as chief of staff before joining American Insurance Association) and Daschle are all rewards to them. (Read "The Whore Factor" by Matt Taibbi on Daschle's background lobbying for health insurance companies after he was defeated and forced to step down from Senate Majority Leader).
The fact that the thousands of doctors in Physicians for a National Health Program who have been working on public health and universal healthcare for years have not been thrown a single bone shows that money talks and apparently speaks the language Obama likes.
Also, reading through the Trudy Lieberman's piece at the Columbia Journalism Review, I wondered if Gupta has a serious enough of an appreciation for the word "factcheck" to be the nation's highest public health official.
Oops, forgot our new rules.
Here's the link:
http://www.cjr.org/.../the_tv_doc_as_surgeon_general.php
One thing to keep in mind is that I don't think Gupta is going to be the point-man for a new health system (although Conyers is indeed suspicious of him).
I think Obama has already assigned that role to Tom Daschle, after realizing that the Senate values nothing so highly as the ability to show their "collegiality" to one of their own. His reception in the Senate shows that he's got an opening to drive home anything that Obama and the House formulate (although, as with the recent stimulus discussion, the House may actually serve as leadership).
"In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger."
I must say if nothing else, I do always like Taibbi's way with imagery.
Remind me to tell you my Sanjay Gupta story sometime.
Tell us your Sanjay Gupta story.
I don't know if Tom Daschle would suck a cheeseburger off a corpse but he'd probably blow Ariel Sharon for a rise in poll numbers. It's remarkable that his incompetence and cowardice got him any role in an administration. I think the Republicans are greeting him cordially because they're thinking in the back of their minds, "Hot Damn! What did we do for the good old Jesus to bless us with this guy again? He's such a pushover he makes Harry Reid look like an Austrian body builder!"
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/hayes_video
Chris Hayes and Keith Olbermann discussing Gupta brings up a much better point: Why are those who were right about things but who were outsiders from the betlway consensus considered unserious and those who were wrong but go to enough DC cocktail parties considered the serious, sober people?
Well, isn't this why we have a confirmation process so these questions are asked and documented?
My excitement level over this, about a 3
"Well, isn't this why we have a confirmation process so these questions are asked and documented?"
The Senate, PhRMA's favorite body, gets to ask those questions, not Conyers.
However Conyers will meet with Obama over the question, the news has reported. Hopefully he can get him to change his mind.
The best defense of Gupta I've heard is that his job is mostly irrelevant. If that's the case, why not get a better doctor and someone without a history of poor statements, knowledge, and misinformation on the health issue -- or someone who even maybe has a background in public health... -- to do it just to be safe?
"Tell us your Sanjay Gupta story."
Really need to tell it face-to-face. Preferably over Mojitos.
LOL