Like, a person of awesomeness

As a post-script to last month's ruminations on cross-cultural dating, this piece on Jewcy about an ill-fated 14 year old interfaith love affair is the best thing I've read all week:

"Since I’d experienced deli food, I decided that I was fairly worldly and down with the whole “Jewish thing” anyway. And maybe it would have gone fine if I had just excitedly explained to his mother that you can make rugelach with almost anything."

Nicely done, D-Pat.

At first blush, at least, I like this choice a lot - admittedly, my knowledge about Senator-designate Kirsten Gillibrand starts and ends with her defeating an [alleged] wife-abusing bully for her House seat in in 2006, but she's looking like a sane, savvy conclusion to the media circus that has sprung up around Hillary's replacement.

The gun advocacy is a little less than thrilling, but in this Obama-y age of post-everythingness, I sort of love the idea of a member of the Blue Dog Caucus representing New York in the Senate.
I think it sends an interesting message that the Democratic party's inclusiveness transcends geographical convenience.

Guerilla knitting!

Seriously:

"A growing global movement of guerilla knitters, who stitch their handmade creations onto trees, poles, street lights and other objects in the public domain."

The best part is the image - positively Seussian. We have to bring this movement to DC.

www.randomactsofcongress.blogspot.com

A little cross/self promotion:

Check out Steve and my newest project, Random Acts of Congress. It's our attempt to combat all those negative stereotypes about the crooks on Capitol Hill by highlighting the good guys: Congresspeople who do good things.

We hope you'll visit, and help us by sending your tips and stories to congressdoesntsuck@gmail.com. Thanks!

This one's for you, Pop.

Bill Simmons bestows "The Marisa Tomei Suddenly Getting Naked in Every Movie Award for "The Most Dumbfounding Ongoing Occurrence," earning him the Ben Stiller Award for Remarkably Accurate Springsteen Depiction to Hilarious Results:

As a lifelong Bruce Springsteen fan, the Super Bowl ads for his performance next month never stop flooring me. Don't they know how the man is wired? He can't bang out three songs without sprinkling one autobiographical story in there, and he certainly can't just go away without returning for an encore, right? (Note to the NFL: After Bruce finishes his set, hog-tie him to one of the uprights or else he's coming back out for three more songs. Just trust me. You don't want Bruce wandering back onto the field with his guitar like Shooter in "Hoosiers" and getting bowled over by a safety.) Look, Bruce might be telling the NFL, "Don't worry, I won't tell a story. I'll just sing my three songs and get out of there." But he won't be able to do it. You watch. We're gonna get a moment like this after the second song.

"Tampa Baaaaaaaay! (Crowd cheers.) Is anyone alive tonight??? (Crowd goes crazy.) Super Bowl Forty-Threeeeeee!!! (Crowd goes crazy as Bruce turns somber.) You know, when I was growing up, the only thing my dad hated more than me was my guitar. (Crowd hushes.) He was always saying, 'Bruce, I wish you never got that danged guitar.' So one day I was playing it in my room, my dad was watching Super Bowl Three between the Jets and … uh … uh … I think it was the Colts. Big man, was it the Colts? (Clarence says, 'Yeah, boss. The Colts.') Well, turns out my dad had a ton of money on the Colts … and they lost. But I didn't care. I was just up in my room strummin' my guitar. Then Dad came upstairs, and I remember asking, "Hey, Pop, who won the game? And Dad got mad and broke my guitar over my head. He busted me up pretty bad, I needed 589 stitches to close the wound. From then on, I knew I needed to start watching football. And so I did. (Dramatic pause.) This is 'Darlington County.'"

A particularly practical post

More interesting appointments news:

Cass Sunstein to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a little disappointed - I had been holding out unlikely hope for a Supreme Court appointment - but I think this an interesting symbolic choice.

I loved Nudge, and read it as, among other things, an argument for government and corporations to conduct their interactions with citizens in a straightforward and accessible way. And yet while regulatory inefficiences are a whipping boy for commentators, policy groups, and both parties - that lame, oft-repeated joke about the Gettysburg address being 286 words while government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26911 leaps to mind - precious few people are willing to actually do anything about it. It will be an absolutely fascinating experiment to see what happens when someone with a background in behavioral economics and policy design takes the helm of the executive branch's regulatory body.

Sunstein's acceptance also kicks my already-ample respect for him up considerably. One could easily argue that OIRA is a step down in prestige and glamour from the University of Chicago law school, and I think this post signals a true eagerness to put his preaching into practice in the most down-to-brass-tacks possible way.

Those are going to be some damn-well attended health press conferences

Well, if this isn't going to distratch political-appointment-dilettantes like me from the Leon Panetta choice, I don't know what is...

The conjectures have reached fever pitch: has Team Obama officially offered the job to Sanjay Gupta, the would-be dreamiest surgeon general ever (with due respects to C. Everett Koop's sweet beard)? Howard Kurtz says yes.

Fingers crossed, ladies.

Barack Obama is an Aaron Sorkin Character

The king is dead, long live the king

I know, our capacity for outrage at the crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush administration is used up, they're out of here in 14 days and counting, a New Day of Hope is Dawning, all that.

You should still read Cullen Murphy and Todd Purdum's "Oral History of the Bush White House," though, because:

a) a remarkable number of insiders were willing to testify to them, and the competing memories, interpretations, and agendas of those surrounding the 43rd President are fascinating

b) it's a well-organized retrospective of the tumultuous Bush near-decade, including the outrages you haven't even thought to think about in years (the 2001 stem-cell address, anyone?), and a sobering reminder that turning a new page won't be nearly as easy as it sounds.

c) wow, so it turns out that the most left-wing, wild-eyed, mouth-foaming conspiracy theorists were, uh, right:

"(Richard Clark:) That night, on 9/11, Rumsfeld came over and the others, and the president finally got back, and we had a meeting. And Rumsfeld said, You know, we’ve got to do Iraq, and everyone looked at him—at least I looked at him and Powell looked at him—like, What the hell are you talking about? And he said—I’ll never forget this—There just aren’t enough targets in Afghanistan. We need to bomb something else to prove that we’re, you know, big and strong and not going to be pushed around by these kind of attacks.

And I made the point certainly that night, and I think Powell acknowledged it, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That didn’t seem to faze Rumsfeld in the least. "

Jesse White for Senate!

Nothing to brighten a rainy Tuesday like a bit of soap-opera theatrics on the Hill, and the Senate's refusal to seat Roland Burris today (the Blago-pick) is rife with it. Mostly I feel sorry for the fellow, and he seems to be conducting himself through this sideshow with a modicum of dignity.

But, by far the best part of this ordeal is the persona behind the drama's current act: Jesse White, the Illinois Secretary of State who refused to certify Blagojevich's appointment. This guy is fabulous - a Chicago pol who actually cleaned up corruption, and a former paratrooper, schoolteacher, and minor-leaguer for the Chicago Cubs. Here's my favorite part of the biography:

"While he's the first African-American to serve as Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White is probably just as well-known for founding the Jesse White Tumblers. It's an organization that tries to keep youth out of trouble through athletics. White, who turned 73 in 2007, often has appeared at parades and sporting events with his tumbling team."

Fantastic! Note to whoever eventually resolves this fiasco: could there be a better choice?