Keller @ Large: Glib Gruber Sounds Like A Politician

BOSTON (CBS) -- "Glib" is a great word, isn't it?

It's an adjective that my dictionary defines as something "said or done carelessly, showing little preparation or thought; lacking depth or substance; often insincere or deceitful."

And it's the very same adjective Prof. Jonathan Gruber applied to himself over and over as he sweated out a visit to the House Oversight Committee to explain his infamous string of speeches in which be boasted of deceiving the public about how the Affordable Care Act would work.

Poor Gruber was programmed to basically repeat three or four sentences in response to any question; understandably, his lawyer doesn't want him ad-libbing in public for awhile, until the heat dies down.

Maybe a hundred years or so ought to do it.

But glibness seemed to be a staple of his mea culpas, and it's interesting that either he or his handler or both chose that particular self-description.

For one thing, it does not acknowledge error. At one point a congressman asked Gruber if his now-infamous statements about deception over the true impact of Obamacare were lies. No, they weren't he said: "I was being glib."

That's an important distinction. And it took some guts to make that stand, given how Gruber's former champions in the administration and Congress have been claiming everything he said was false.

Maybe Gruber knows that glibness is a reasonable defense because of how glib the politics of health care reform have been, all sides spouting easy slogans instead of doing the hard, politically-risky work of finding good solutions.

Gruber says he's not a politician.

I don't know professor.

You look like you have potential.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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