Kal Penn Leaves ‘House’ for White House

And what, pray tell, does the White House Office of Public Liaison do? What qualifications are required for this?
We all thought that Bill Clinton was caught up in Hollywood. Clinton has nothing on obama. This administration is really starting to remind me of the movie with Luke Wilson, where he becomes the president of America

There is no reasonable rationale for having a political liaison to Hollywood. No one in Hollywood cares enough to actually learn about a situation before preaching about it to thousands of idiotic fans who accept everything they hear from celebrities as gospel. This move just exemplifies Obama’s commitment to making America dumber.

hmmmm, hiring someone who specializes in “stoner” movies. That should help BO’s image

Kal Penn sounds like a thoughtful guy, well educated and willing to serve. How refreshing. Don’t get stuck on the stoner image. It’s just for fun.

Make America dumber? Are you kidding me? This country still contains those 59 million morons who voted for Bush the second time. They didn’t go anywhere. They still watch television, and see a movie now and then. The process of dumbing down America through the auspices of the entertainment media is going on full speed as we discuss it. We see it every time the audience stampedes to the theater to watch a gun-filled bloodfest replete with scatological references and completely bereft of any actual value. Where else do you think our youth learned to love violence like they do? We don’t need anyone’s help in dumbing down. It’s an ongoing process with the public at the controls. Intelligent kids are hacked on by their peers until they learn to speak in monosyllables.

Relax! Really, take a chill pill. Kal Penn is an actor. Yes, he did some stoner movies, which I love. If he has a calling for politics, go for it. This is America and he has every right to grow up to be anything. Now, to leave acting for a average paying government job may not be what I would do, but he has every right. I wish him success and I hope he does another Harold and Kumar movie after Obama leaves office. Don’t condem him for his acting roles. Anyone of us would have done a stoner movie if paid. IT IS ACTING. We let former drunks and stoners become President. OH wait, he didn’t inhale and the other found Jesus. Didn’t know he was missing, but he found him.

I would have prefered Cheech and Chong.

Ha! Kinda like hiring someone who’s only organizational experience was running horse competitions as head of FEMA. oh wait…

The President is the one that needs to lay off the herbs or whatever his advisers like Larry Summers are feeding him. His most recent imitation of emperor Nero in acting the fool overseas while the US burns through the treasury at an historic clip is not helping the people. Having an actor in the White House might help President Obama to come back to reality. Keep saying “this isn’t a movie…” and may be he’ll snap out of the trance.

Now we know what his next movie will be, “Harold and Kumar score at the White House”. Too bad I didn’t know this last night. I wouldn’t have cried as much over his charactor’s death. Seriously, I wish him all the luck. I enjoyed watching him in the movies and TV. He will be missed on House.

Barack and Kumar.
Perfect.

How about Pee Wee Herman as secretary of defense?

and he’ll be a hit with the Obamas new dog (Hint: watch Van Wilder)

Yeah right – Public Liaison to finding the kindest bud in the greater DC area.

MW, a minor point: I’ve been associated with the University of Pennsylvania for years, and the PR office there will tell you in no uncertain terms that the correct abbreviation for the school is “Penn,” not “UPenn”. I’ve been told that the “UPenn” misconception came from a very early URL back in the infancy of the WWW.
Cheers.

Posted by: afmcalax | Apr 7, 2009 1:53:44 PM
Yeah, and Obama is a brilliant orator who can’t speak Austrian.

It is pathetic! With connecting between Hollywood and The White House??? It is a waste of our taxpayer’s money. Maybe this actor has a lack of inexperience and leadership just like Obama.

Great! Another mindless, Hollywood liberal who has learned through his EXTENSIVE casting couch education that America/capitalism bad and that EU/socialism

“Maybe this actor has a lack of inexperience”
That’s like the fifth time I’ve seen you refer to his “lack of inexperience.” That’s funny.

Thanks silky for the laugh. I noticed “lack of inexperience” too. Doesn’t that mean that the person is actually experienced?

So “Change we can believe in”? More like “Change we can make believe in?” B/c this is not the President of The United States this is Entertainer of The United States. Gotta be in the news everyday. I do not want to hear anyone say that the Republicans need to get over it and stop compaining because all we have heard was the same crap from Democrats! Get over THAT!!!

It is pathetic! With connecting between Hollywood and The White House??? It is a waste of our taxpayer’s money. Maybe this actor has a lack of inexperience and leadership just like Obama.
Posted by: anonymous
Anonymous obviously missed Chuck Norris campaigning for Mike Huckabee and Elizabeth Hasselbeck for Sarah Palin. Yes, President Obama is the only one who ever had ties to Hollywood.

To Clt:
Ya entertainers did campain for McCain but they never put entertainers in the actual White House nor would they! Get over us compaining about Obama! What do you think we had to put up with when there is a Republican in office, your bs! So get over it!

Absolute haters! You guys sound like a bunch of old angry men. Stop getting pissed because an actor got a position that doesn’t affect your life one way or the other……

now let’s talk again about legalizing one of mother nature’s finest products! the medical uses need to be utilized! amazing potential in a simple herb.

Posted by: jmar829 | Apr 7, 2009 2:25:47 PM
Bush knew that you don’t treat asthma with a breathalyzer.
And Bush knows there are only 50 states.
Absent teleprompters, Bush sounds like William F. Buckley in contrast to Obama.
I think Obama’s made a fool of himself enough that you guys would know better by now.

we gots a white house movie star! oBnation be gooood. all george bush could do is run our country and smoke dope with kumar in a movie. bary boy get the real thing. does anyone know if kumar cheats on his taxes like the rest of big boys guys and girls?

Posted by: jmar829 | Apr 7, 2009 2:32:51 PM
70 days in and Obama still hasn’t fixed what’s wrong with the economy. Instead he’s jamming Marxism down the throat of the country. He’s had harsher words for his country than for North Korea. He’s creating absolutely unmanageable debt loads.
I think we’re right to voice dissent.
Dissent is patriotic, remember?

Jack:”Ya entertainers did campain for McCain but they never put entertainers in the actual White House nor would they!”
Oh please – President Bush grabbed a talking head from FoxNews to serve as his press secretary. Are you trying to pull the big lie technique, or can you really not remember just a few years ago? Entertainer is a job, and the people who do that job often can do quite well at other closely related jobs.

“Absent teleprompters, Bush sounds like William F. Buckley in contrast to Obama.”
LOFL! Yeah.
STRATEGERY!!!

“70 days in and Obama still hasn’t fixed what’s wrong with the economy. Instead he’s jamming Marxism down the throat of the country.”
Nonono. It’s fascism, not “Marxism” … though the Obama organization IS channeling the Soviet-style bureaucratic centralism of yester-year, along with surveillance which is beyond the wildest dreams of the old politburo.

There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee…

Who could possibly clean up 8 years in 70 days? Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, or Sarah Palin? You have nothing!

“The White House Office of Public Liaison” – WOW. Is this how groveling for the limelight Barack is going to “create or save” millions of jobs? By creating BS ones and handing them over to Hollywood celebrities with zero qualifications? Oh the “Audacity”! Barack proves himself, little by little, more & more every single day that he is the biggest charalaton to ever take office. BTW, I am a lifelong Democrat.

Penn’s “House” character, Dr. Kuttner, was also an off-white guy raised by white parents. Maybe the “Obama” organization’s figure-head’s finally gotten such a swelled head — can you die of that? let’s ask House! — gone through the teevee looking-glass … seeking out a “celebrity surrogate” whose dramatic character operated in a medical mileu in which — as for the political class — money is no object?
Bet Penn regrets it already.

ZERO qualifications? Please do some research before posting such crazy generalizations. The guy has a double major from UCLA and is obtaining a graduate degree in International security from Stanford. Sounds like he’s got much more to offer than most people in this country. At least there’s one more open minded individual in the White House.

“Barack proves himself, little by little, more & more every single day that he is the biggest charalaton to ever take office. BTW, I am a lifelong Democrat.”
Bazillions of lifelong Democrats are shuddering at the perfidy and flim-flam of the “Obama” organization. 15 April will be the beginning of the end of “Obama”.
For a wake-up on the “Obama” organization, read Glenn Greenwald’s Salon piece on Geithner and Summers.

“Actually, that’s Brazillions.”
LIKE Brazil, the US is now the very rich and the very poor, and the consumer-credit classes who are ABOUT to be “very poor”.
UNLIKE Brazil, the US is subject to total surveillance.
But I do know what you mean.

Republicans, you have no answers only finger pointing. What’s worse is that you have no-one to give solutions. Every time a new name is announced in the White House, you go in attack mode. Do us all a favor and spend your time finding a decent republican to represent your party.

“Is there no end to the number of people feeding off the public trough? What on earth does the associate director of public liason do? This is just another waste of taxpayer money which goes gushes out of this administration. Mr. President– saving money begins at home. This appointment is a total waste of money and is just a way to give the guy some political experience so that he can run for office.”
Maybe you should consider actually learning something about the role prior to calling for the elimination of more jobs.

Since your econ education is so extensive, what would be your plan to get America out of this financial mess?

On the TV show “House” Kal Penn’s character goes from being alive to being dead.
In real life, Kal Penn the ACTOR goes from being smart to being stupid.

“The “Obama” organization LOVES the Patriot Act: He’s out-Bushing Cheney-Bush on surveillance:
“a close read of a government filing last Friday reveals that the Obama Administration has gone beyond any previous legal claims put forth by former President Bush.” (rawstory)”
I guess they’re not going to explain what the hell they mean?
In the arena of surveillance, I don’t know that you can go much further in the wrong direction than agents writing their own warrants and the subjects being subject to a gag rule. Please explain how Obama has seen to it that the Patriot Act has gone “beyond” that.

That’s funny. However, the majority of the country and the majority of the world leaders don’t share your opinion. Keep trying though slugger. Who’s your leader than? Who’s your answer?

There is FAR better writing now than there has ever been. The problem is that the population is DUMB, so they require dumb programming. There is plenty of great writing if you look for it, though. All the HBO shows are well-written, most notably The Wire, Six Feet Under and the Sopranos. Showtime has some well-written shows, particularly Dexter. Both AMC shows are brilliant, Mad Men and Breaking Bad. 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm are the funniest shows since Seinfeld. Friday Night Lights is great for a network drama.

Posted by: Pants on Fire | Apr 7, 2009 4:09:14 PM
There were no Republicans in the poll sampling.

WRONG! The Rasmussen Report claims that Obama has a 48% approval rating by republicans. Nice try. Thank you for watching Fox.

PhillyPaul:”"The White House Office of Public Liaison” – WOW. Is this how groveling for the limelight Barack is going to “create or save” millions of jobs? By creating BS ones… BTW, I am a lifelong Democrat.”
The White House Office of Public Liaison was created under Nixon and formalized under Johnson. I

Silky: You forgot one that I still love to this day! Bush..”Im going to read my ECALETIC book collection! HAHAHA
Yup..Bush was a genius!
Anywho, about the topic at hand. If your going to comment on an article..at least do a quick google search. Kal Penn is a very smart man. He is a pretty good actor, who, while doing his “stoner” movies..was doing what most of Hollywood never does..continued with his education. This is not some dim wit, who just wants to get in the news. This is a person who has smarts, is somewhat known to us, and the younger generations..and maybe…by him choosing to go into the politcal arena somewhat…may actually encourage other people to do the same. I see nothing wrong with trying to involve yourself in your gov’t….much better than just sitting on the sidelines complaining.

jmar829, I agree that some people seem to be overreacting to this appointment and do come across as pretty silly. However, I take issue with your attitude and most of what you wrote when you said, “Republicans, you have no answers only finger pointing.” Well, try as democrats might to paint the republicans as the “party of no,” Americans know better. It is perfectly appropriate for the minority party to focus on what they disagree with in the majority party’s plans– such as when Democrats complained about the war in Iraq. Would you have appreciated people simply responding, “oh, yeah, well what is your plan?” Of course, your main plan was not to do what Bush was doing. Makes sense to me. So when Obama proposes something that is antithetical to Republican principles, it makes sense that the thrust of the response it, “that is the wrong thing to do.” many republicans offer alternative solutions, such as Ryan’s alternative budget, just as some democrats offered alternative to bush policies, such as, in the iraq example, Biden’s partition plan or suggestions of withdrawal timelines. But some would still interpret that as “saying no.” That’s the lot of the out party.
Then you continued, “What’s worse is that you have no-one to give solutions.” Oh, we have people to give solutions. What we do not have at present is a person whose office sets him/her apart as the “solution maker,” because we do not hold the presidency. McCain is still an excellent proposer of solutions, as is Eric Cantor and a score of others. Newt even makes sense from time to time.
Here’s where you tie that all in to the subject at hand, at least tangentially: “Every time a new name is announced in the White House, you go in attack mode. Do us all a favor and spend your time finding a decent republican to represent your party.” Um, as the Chosen One has said many times, we can do more than one thing at a time, including criticize an appointment. But you see, your mistake is in lumping all Republicans into a single group. I for one, for example, have posted here in support of Mr. Penn’s hiring. I previously expressed enthusiasm for Hillary as Secretary of State. The Republicans posting here, like the Republicans in Washington and REpublicans in general, are a diverse group (despite what SOME Democrats would have people believe) with a variety of views. We do not walk in lockstep.
And why must we all fall behind a single Republican spokesperson, for goodness sake? The next presidential election campaign hasn’t begun just yet, I would hope. And bickering over the wisdom of a celebrity appointment to a low level WH job is not about leadership of the Republican party.

“Kal is a moron and this isn’t even news to be honest.”
Kal is taking post-grad classes at Stanford.
****************************************
And Condi Rice was and still is the President of Stanford.
But that never seemed to satisfy her critics.
Attending a Big Name school doesn’t equal intelligence. Some of the stupidest people I have ever known graduated from highly respected schools.
Some even teach at them.
The bottom line is that does this country at this time really NEED a Hollywood liaison?
And why do we need a liaison for all these different groups? Are we not all Americans? What happened to having elected officials speak to us as one group–Americans–rather than a speech for each “special” group?

As a person who has worked what seems like my whole life in government, totally dedicated to my country and proud of the work I do, I still have to apply and go through an incredibly complicated process to gain any type of promotion. My qualifications have to be vetted and verified. It is disheartening to see some guy get a position like this when the rest of us must follow rigourous rules and regulations to advance in public service – an rightly so.
Posted by: HardworkingJerk | Apr 7, 2009 3:03:35 PM
********************************
Hardworking: Thank you for your service. I am sure there are many others like you out there who don’t have the luxury of name recognition due to celebrity status.
That said, the reality is that for many of these White House office posts, it comes down to political connections and payback: Obama could bring in Paris Hilton for the job if he wanted to.

It’s great the the Adminstration is filling positions, but has there been any progess on filling those openings at Treasury?
In a sense guess the Administration is wise in holding back on filling spots. After Timmy G. gets thrown out (or under the bus, not clear which will happen first), the new Treasury Sec. will want to bring in his/her own people…

in the vetting process they are finding too many people who pay their taxes, treasury can’t have them work there if they obey the law. they need more aplicatants who cheat on their taxes

Let’s not address this story, let’s talk about Bush. It’s Bush’s fault that
this actor joined Obama’s team. Arnold is a good example of why actors need to stay in Hollywood.

jmar, just curious. Who would you say was “leading” the Democrat party during the Bush years? was there a single voice? A single individual who was acknowledged as the leader of the party?
Oh, and I guess I was being obtuse today. I didn’t pick up until you responded to my post that you actually are pushing the “rush limbaugh is the leader of the republican party” nonsense.

Well, he was the first to get out of Gitmo.

What little of his acting career was left will probably be gone when he gets done with this gig. ha ha! How silly to get an actor as a laision!

I guess Penn can compete with
VP Joe Biden, Treasury Secretary
Tim Geithner, and Press Secretary
Robert Gibbs for Court Jester!
“Send in the Clowns”, don’t bother
they’re here!

You want someone good and qualified for a job. Then a person steps up to be a public servant then he’s picked to pieces. And then we wonder why you don’t get any good canidates and why there’s only really really old farts in the government. Why would anyone want to do that. I sort of understand it for the presidency..like with Palin if she wasn’t picked thru she could be vice presi.. I can’t even say the title with her name in it. There a few repub I’ve been reading about that would be good. But it would be good if Palin runs just for the material she gives Saturday night live. I’m a repub (but not one of those nutty ones) but I voted for Obama and for that reason I feel I owe it to him to give him a chance. I supported Bush during and after 9/11. He lost me when we went to Iraq. I wasn’t totally on board with him because I thought he brought too much of his religion into things and made it more divisive. But the government needs to stay out of the religion business.

I am more upset that House will never be the same…. My Monday nights are now over… I am so heart broken!

Good for Kal for doing something to get behind his elected leadership and attempting to help to make his home/country/ world a better place through public service.Better still he’s working to make sure the leadership doesn’t get out of touch with the opions, desires and needs of the people that leadership is supposed to serve. He’s doing more than being a celebrity face on a campaign trail. He’s putting his money where his mouth is and I can’t think of anything more noble or admirable. If Kal ever gets back into acting I’ll watch every movie he does in the movie theatre and then rent and then buy it as a result of his actions. I’m selfishly sorry that he’s leaving House cause I feel he improved the show, but I certainly can appreciate what he’s doing.