The Times today:

For a slight, soft-spoken Nobel laureate, Washington has been an initiation that he has likened to being “dumped in the deep end of the pool.” Dr. Chu, 61, was chairman of Stanford’s physics department and ran a national research laboratory. But in addition to being verbally slapped around by Mr. McCain, he has been forced to backtrack on some ill-informed comments about OPEC and ordered to spend quickly tens of billions of dollars in stimulus money with virtually no top-level help.

In other words either, “Help, I’m drowning!” or “I’m in way over my head.” Maybe that’s a little harsh. How about, “Hey America, give me a break. I just started swimming lessons last week.”

And if Secretary Chu thinks McCain was harsh now, wait until the stimulus checks start getting spent.