You would be forgiven for believing that there was not one member of the Republican Party that was serious about governing the nation. You would be forgiven because it is true, as Republican House member Jason Chaffetz helps demonstrate during, of course, one of his many Fox News appearances. Now that Obama has indeed appointed an "Ebola czar" as demanded, you see, it turns out
that decision was completely wrong.
“Why not have the surgeon general head this up?" Chaffetz asked in a Wednesday appearance on Fox News. "I think that’s a very legitimate question. At least you have somebody who has a medical background who's been confirmed by the United States Senate.”
“It begs the question, what does the surgeon general do?" he added. "Why aren’t we empowering that person?”
An astute observer would note that the United States currently has no surgeon general. The United States has no surgeon general because the president's nominee for the position once opined that yes, getting shot by one of America's many guns
would be bad for a person's health, and that was all it took for the conspiracy theorists at the NRA to have a fit, and for Jason Chaffetz's party to block the nomination until the president nominates a surgeon general who correctly reckons getting shot with one of America's many guns should be considered a nutritional supplement. Chaffetz does not know this because he is not serious about governing, and therefore appears on Fox News only to spout whatever criticism of Obama comes to mind.
But then someone told him.
Chaffetz told The Huffington Post that he was not saying that the non-existent surgeon general should be in charge of the Ebola response, but rather that the Office of the Surgeon General should be.
"Well I do know there's an acting surgeon general, I understand that. The surgeon general is also an office. It's the Office of the Surgeon General. I know there's some confusion there, but I don't think I was confused," Chaffetz said.
That would be a good save, had he not specifically been referring to,
exact quote, "somebody who has a medical background
who's been confirmed by the United States Senate," and "that
person." Nonetheless he quickly moved on to repeat his
prior complaint that the new "Ebola czar," who we had to have only because steadfastly anti-czar Republicans were beside themselves demanding Obama get a new czar, has been on the job for nigh on a day or two now and still hasn't come to calm Congressional Republicans and talk them off the ledge they've been on.
"I question why we would have a person that was put forward as a czar, when you do have an acting surgeon general," he added. "The point is the person the president has appointed doesn't feel prepared to come before Congress."
In other words, there is absolutely nothing Obama can do that will not result in Rep. Jason Chaffetz appearing on Fox News to declare that Obama is Doing Everything Wrong. Why is there no czar? Why is there no surgeon general? Why is the nominee for surgeon general so
divisive? Why is the czar not a different person? Why has not the czar come before me to show his respect? Why are we not closing the airports? Why are we not listening to Donald Trump on whether the virus has mutated into an entirely new form? Why does Obama want to send teams to fight Ebola in Africa? Why are we spending money on any of this?
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This is because Jason Chaffetz is not serious about governing, but instead appears on Fox News only to spout whatever criticism of the opposing president comes to mind.