Sam Kass appointed "Health food czar"

[Gaspar]

Before leaving on a family vacation to Mane this weekend President Obama appointed Sam Kass (his private chef from Chicago) as Health & Food Czar.

Do we really need a health and food Czar?

I'm thinking there could be some more important uses for the money going to this new bureaucratic post. 

Michelle flies this guy in from Chicago to cook for special occasions and state dinners.  I guess she probably wanted him close by.  Who knows?

[Conan71]

Czar is fitting for our rapid conversion to totalitarianism.

[Gaspar]

I wonder who the new Housekeeping Czar will be?

[we vs us]

From the New York Times:

"TWICE a month, President Obama's senior policy advisers gather at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to hash out strategies for improving the health of the country's children. Among the assistant secretaries, chiefs of staff and senior aides sits an unlikely participant: a bald, intense young man who happens to be the newest White House chef.

His name is Sam Kass. And when he's not grilling fish for the first family or tending tomatillos in the White House garden, he is pondering the details of child nutrition legislation, funding streams for the school lunch program and the best tactics to fight childhood obesity."

snip

"Mr. Kass, 29, forged a close bond with the Obamas while cooking for them and their children for about two years before they moved to Washington and has golfed with the president on Martha's Vineyard. Behind the scenes, he attends briefings on child nutrition and health, has vetted nonprofits as potential partners for White House food initiatives and regularly peppers senior staff about policy matters. ("Do we have a toxicologist who specializes in colony collapse disorder?" Mr. Kass asked in a recent e-mail message about the Department of Agriculture's position on honey bees, Ms. Merrigan recalled.)

For some former White House officials, this is nothing short of astonishing. Walter Scheib, the executive White House chef during the Clinton and Bush administrations, called Mr. Kass's involvement in public policy unique."

So he's an ex-chef (used to work at Avec in CHI), has been with the Obama's for quite a while, and works primarily with the First Lady, whose signature cause is childhood obesity.

Sounds ominous.  

[Gaspar]

Sounds ridiculous.

[dbacks fan]

Sounds ridiculous.

Wait till he goes after Brewburger.

[Hoss]

Wait till he goes after Brewburger.

Now that was funny...

[Breadburner]

Is Kass Jewish.....

[Conan71]

Is Kass Jewish.....

Dunno, I haven't seen his schwantz

[Breadburner]

Dunno, I haven't seen his schwantz

Dont show him yours...He might put a warning label on it.....

[RecycleMichael]

I'm thinking there could be some more important uses for the money going to this new bureaucratic post. 

President Bush appointed 31 czars...

They included for the first time:

Foreign Aid Czar
Bioethics Czar
Bird Flu Czar
Birth Control Czar
Cleanup Czar
Cyber Security Czar
Faith-Based Czar
Intelligence Czar
Reading Czar
Weatherization Czar

[Hoss]

President Bush appointed 31 czars...

They included for the first time:

Foreign Aid Czar
Bioethics Czar
Bird Flu Czar
Birth Control Czar
Cleanup Czar
Cyber Security Czar
Faith-Based Czar
Intelligence Czar
Reading Czar
Weatherization Czar

I always find it so incredibly funny that the righties start all the hand-wringing with regards to 'Czars', but forget who made the most use of them...

[dbacks fan]

President Bush appointed 31 czars...

They included for the first time:

Foreign Aid Czar
Bioethics Czar
Bird Flu Czar
Birth Control Czar
Cleanup Czar
Cyber Security Czar
Faith-Based Czar
Intelligence Czar
Reading Czar
Weatherization Czar

So, RM, have they asked you to be the Recycling Czar? 

[nathanm]

I always find it so incredibly funny that the righties start all the hand-wringing with regards to 'Czars', but forget who made the most use of them...

Who started that idiotic naming convention anyway?

[dbacks fan]

Who started that idiotic naming convention anyway?

George H. W. Bush with the appointment of William Bennett,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bennett

But it traces back to Ron and Nancy

"In 1980, Ronald Reagan shifted responsibility for the anti-drug effort from the health department to the Department of Justice. "I would say that this is the most intense federal effort ever against drugs," said Associate Attorney General Rudolph Giuliani, who oversaw the D.E.A. and the Bureau of Prisons and who orchestrated expansion of the F.B.I. into drug enforcement. Senator Joe Biden began advocating for a Cabinet-level position to coordinate federal agencies—a "drug czar." So began the era of "zero tolerance." Reagan's presidency reversed his predecessors' drug-control policies, and funding for law enforcement rose to three times that for abuse-prevention and treatment programs."

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/7/30/22126/5103

Sorry my bad, Nixon:

"Political and popular demands for appointments of a czar routinely stem from fundamental defects or contradictions in underlying federal laws. The first modern-era American "czar" was Energy Czar John Love, appointed by President Nixon in 1973 during the gas crisis, followed by other energy czars appointed by presidents Ford and Carter. Yet, while the appointment of an energy czar consoled some people sitting in gas lines, the fundamental cause of the energy shortages -- federal price controls and other restrictions -- were kept in place until Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. "

http://www.fff.org/comment/ed0900e.asp