From ‘White Castle’ to ‘House’ to the White House

By Jennifer J. Foster

It’s not often that I get to blog about television. But one of my favorite TV shows took a big and very unexpected turn this week, and it’s all because of politics.

I’m a huge fan of the Fox television series, “House M.D..“ I have loved it from the very beginning. I was mad when the first team quit and the second team was brought in; I was happy enough with Jesse Spencer, thank you very much, and I wasn’t thrilled about the series replacing him with Kal Penn.

But I grew to love Penn’s character, Dr. Lawrence Kutner. My husband and I were talking during last week’s episode—

SIDEBAR: Scratch that—we were talking during the commercials of last week’s episode. One of the biggest TV-watching rules in the Foster household is ... NO TALKING DURING HOUSE (or 24, for that matter)!! The dialogue is just too good to miss. END SIDEBAR

—about what a good job Kutner did on the show. He was our new favorite of the second team, we decided.

Then he goes and shoots himself in the head.

I was SO MAD!!! At first, I thought it was a dream sequence ... and then, I was hoping it was a dream sequence, even though it was becoming increasingly and painfully obvious that it wasn’t. And by the time the cast was assembled for the funeral scene, I was in all-out revolt, threatening to give up the show entirely because of the writers’ decision to kill Kutner off.

As it turns out, it wasn’t their decision. It was his.

Kutner—er, Penn has decided on a curious course of action: He’s leaving Hollywood for a government position in Washington. But not just any government position in Washington. He’s going to be an associate director in the White House Office of Public Liaison.

You can read more about the winding road that brought the popular TV doctor to President Obama’s administration here. But the short of it is that Penn has nurtured an interest in politics for many years. It’s been a continuing thread that’s run through his life, even leading him to take a master’s course at Stanford University online while he’s been acting. He plugged Obama’s candidacy as far back as the Iowa caucuses, and he’s stayed involved in the process. This opportunity presented itself, and Penn decided to walk away from the stage—and the big paycheck—to serve his country.

Putting aside the unfortunate parallels that some entertainment writers are drawing between his character’s suicide and Penn’s decision to leave one of prime-time television’s top shows, I give Penn a lot of credit for his courage and determination to make this choice at this season in his life.

There is no shortage of mouthy Hollywood stars who take every opportunity to put in their two cents about politics and government. But when it comes to actually doing the work, they all seem to prefer to keep their cushy jobs and million-dollar paydays on the West Coast, far from the responsibilities and work that go into making good public policy.

Kal Penn is not one of them.

Monday morning quarterbacking is easy. Props to Penn for getting in the game.

See also::

Kal Penn hangs up ‘House’ coat for government job

GOP presidential wannabes talk foreign policy

By Jennifer J. Foster

Presidential candidate-to-be Newt Gingrich wants everyone to know that he would have handled the North Korean missile situation a bit differently than President Obama did.

From Politico:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told “Fox News Sunday” that he would have disabled the long-range missile before North Korea launched it, saying too many people “do not appreciate the scale of the threat that is evolving on the planet.”

“One morning, just like 9/11, there’s going to be a disaster,” Gingrich said. “I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Iran or North Korea.”

Gingrich went on to briefly describe some of the “three or four techniques that could have been used” to block the launch, and he also took a swipe at Obama’s general worldview and how it’s shaping the president’s foreign policy:

Reacting to President Barack Obama’s speech in Prague, Gingrich called the plan for a Global Summit on Nuclear Security a “wonderful fantasy idea,” saying Russia and other nations can’t be trusted.

“What are they going to promise, and why would we believe them?” Gingrich said. “It’s very dangerous to have a fantasy foreign policy, and it can get you in enormous trouble.”

I read an article last week that quoted ANONYMOUS OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS as saying that everyone believed the North Korean missile launch was a done deal even up to a week ahead of the launch; because of the way the “diplomacy” around the issue had unfolded, going through with the launch was the only way for the North Koreans to “save face.“

So, while there was plenty of blustering from the Obama Administration—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used strong words and the president himself even tried out a pointed phrase or two—no one, from the North Koreans to the folks doing the blustering themselves, actually expected any of that talk to make a difference.

It seems to be pretty much the same thing with world reaction. Pretty much everyone (except China and Russia, of course) is expressing dismay and threatening to take the issue up in the United Nations, but the issue will only be taken up at the United Nations ... and we know how worthwhile their outrage is.

One more note: Another GOP presidential candidate-to-be took a turn on FNS this week: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford followed Gingrich and waded into the waters of foreign policy and nuclear proliferation.

“In the countryside of South Carolina, at some point, you’ve got to back up words with action. … There have been a long series of … intentional steps on North Korea’s part, and little in the way of actions from the standpoint of either America or the international community.”

Um, yes. But the countryside of South Carolina isn’t exactly the missile launch pads of North Korea. You can’t conduct foreign policy like you are shaking hands with Big Jim down at the general store.

Political labels convenient, but voters beware

By Jennifer J. Foster

If you missed it in Saturday’s print edition of the Opelika-Auburn News, or if you live outside the area, you can read my most recent column online:

Political labels convenient, but voters beware

This column grew out of a couple of blog posts I read last week. Hat tips to Mooncat at Left in Alabama and Kris at The World Around You for the idea.

Want to take a stab at defining progressivism—or conservatism, or liberalism or anything else, for that matter—? Comments welcome!