Politics

Bring On the Wise Men! But Are There Any?

Mickey Kaus Columnist
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The Obama administration is thisclose to being the object of one of the most vicious forms of condescension in the MSM arsenal: the Call for Wise Men. David Gergen almost gets there in this interview on NPR, and the night is young.

But are there any Wise Men left? I’m not so sure. The most obvious wise men are Gergen himself, who’s too cliched even for the MSM to propose with a straight face, and Bill Clinton, whose interests don’t coincide completely with Obama’s and who wouldn’t take the job anyway.  Bruce Reed is in the White House already! Al Gore has gotten too weird. Jody Powell died. Even the old wise men have been partially discredited.

So, Diogenes-style, kausfiles initiates a Request for Wise Men that the MSM can then demand Obama hire to help give direction to, you know, the second-string B team etc. etc. in the White House now. Put your nominees in the comments section below.

Then we can convince Valerie Jarrett. …

My list: Charles Peters, James Fallows, Taylor Branch (we are running down the old Washington Monthly masthead here), Michael Kinsley, Jon Alter, Tom Daschle (who Gergen recommended as Obamacare czar), Bill Carrick, Kenneth Feinberg, Evan Thomas, James Carville (sigh), Bruce Babbitt, Mike McCurry ….

Mickey Kaus