March 20, 2009

Department of Stupid Questions -- Peggy Noonan Edition

renocol_peggynoonan.jpgPeggy Noonan is starting to take off the kneepads she so gleefully strapped on last October. Also fading now is Noonan's once palpably moist adulation

Mr. Obama's cabinet picks and other nominations suggest moderation, also maturity...
Still, in her rush to de-adulate, she seems to have lost some insight into her often-touted ability to see behind the scenes in DC.

In today's column Noonan actually wonders

"why, say, the president does not step in and insist on staffing the top level of his Treasury Department, where besieged Secretary Tim Geithner struggles without deputies through his 15-hour days."
Peggy, Peggy, Peggy. Listen, old girl, I know the pressures of one column every week or two are overwhelming, but you can do it if you really try. In that light, has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, they've phoned everybody in their "Best & Brightest" rolodex and found that nobody in their right mind wants a job in the Obama Treasury Department?

Peggy, you've got a phone and a decades deep DC rolodex. Pick up the phone and check it out.

Posted by Vanderleun at March 20, 2009 1:57 PM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Isn't Noonan the cow who penned that sappy "Thousand Points of Light" speech for George H. W. Bush? Talk about topping Obama for faux eloquence.

And Bush senior is the guy who strangled the Reagan Revolution in its crib because he was more comfortable being a country-club Republican. Thanks a bunch, Poppy.

Posted by: Roderick Reilly at March 20, 2009 2:38 PM

Noonan does not understand at the most elemental level. The cabinet departments are without importance to the revolution; they are dressing, a misdirection. Everything is to be run from the White House, where staff has been enlarged 300%, and then rubber stamped by Congress. That was the New Deal.

FDR's Treasury Secretary had no idea what was coming two months after inaugeration, which was a reversal of all campaign promises over budgets, debt, size of government, and the gold standard.

Obama didn't even need to reverse himself since he never actually promised anything. What you don't see is what you get.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Posted by: at March 20, 2009 7:53 PM

May I have a word with you?

Promise me. Promise me.... that if you ever have cause to refer to me as "Old Girl," as in "it's time to take you out to pasture," that you'll do it in a private email.

Likewise, if I ever have reason to refer to you as "Old Boy" as in it's time to take your car keys or your mouse away, I promise to do it in a private email too!

Meanwhile, you did the Peggy, Old Girl thing to perfection.

Posted by: Webutante at March 21, 2009 12:09 PM

As Dilbert told Asok "They don't call this place the 'resume stain' for nothin'."

Posted by: Mikey NTH at March 23, 2009 7:09 AM