Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

Sunday punditry, and the opinions are flying like World Series home runs!

Frank Rich:

Barack Obama's most devilish political move since the 2008 campaign was to appoint a Republican congressman from upstate New York as secretary of the Army. This week’s election to fill that vacant seat has set off nothing less than a riotous and bloody national G.O.P. civil war. No matter what the results in that race on Tuesday, the Republicans are the sure losers. This could be a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats through 2010, and perhaps beyond

See devtob's rec diary for more comments.

Peter Coy:

If this is the best a stimulus can do, we're in real trouble, says BusinessWeek's Peter Coy. Much more federal help may be needed to spark a real recovery.

Ron Brownstein:

Democratic moderates may well compel both leaders to accept more-limited variations of the public option. But even if that happens, few, if any, Republicans in either chamber are likely to support health care reform. Their unbending resistance captures the fundamental bet that Republicans are placing this year -- that they can regain power by riding a public backlash against government overreach.

Except that people really disdain Republicans these days, making it difficult for them to capitalize.

Maureen Dowd:  

Leave it to Liz Cheney, in her continuing bid to out-Cheney her scary dad, to suggest that Obama is a crass publicity-seeker.

"I think that what President Bush used to do is do it [attend military services] without the cameras," she told a Fox News radio host.

She’s right: There were no press cameras at Dover in the previous administration. There was also no W.

Rebeccaa Solnit:

California is rich. Even in the midst of a drought, we have lots of water, and in the midst of a recession, we have lots of money. The problem is one of distribution, not of actual scarcity.

Sage Stossel: Love in the time of swine flu (cartoons)

Greg Dworkin:

Regina Benjamin is now the Surgeon General via voice vote Senate confirmation, and she is an excellent choice. I interviewed fellow Arena contributor, APHA’s Georges Benjamin (no relation) on her qualifications back in July. At the time I said,"She'll need to be frank, and she'll need to be clear. America needs a Surgeon General who can speak truth to power. We only remember the ones that do."

It’s still true. And it’s especially true with public health in the spotlight because of the ongoing pandemic. The public needs to understand what the federal government is doing and what they plan, and why state response is so uneven (see my Arena post here for a summary.) And it needs to stay un-politicized, not to protect Obama or Federal officials (they’re naked) but to protect the public and get the job done.