Except for the fact that Dr. Mehmet Oz might actually become a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, a state he doesn’t live in, Oliva Nuzzi's profile of him in New York Magazine is pretty darned funny. Especially her recounting of what happened when she tried to interview Oz. Unable to reach him, Nuzzi called his wife, Lisa:
“How did you get my number?” she asked sharply. I told her that her number was listed in public records, and this annoyed her too. “Oh,” she said, “I should have gotten rid of that.” I was about to explain that public records don’t work that way, but she cut in. “Have a nice day,” she said, but it sounded like a cross between the way women of the South say “Bless your heart” and men of Brooklyn call some asshole “pal” after being cut off in traffic. Then she hung up.
Or she thought she did.
As it turned out, Lisa Oz had not ended the call but connected her phone to her vehicle’s sound system so that Nuzzi was able to hear the Oz's argue about her for more than four minutes. A sampling:
“She’s down at the office,” Dr. Oz said. “Your father called and said there’s a reporter from The New Yorker waiting for me down there who said she had an appointment … We?! We had an appointment to meet today!” He said this last thing with acid sarcasm.
“You think she made it up?” Mrs. Oz asked.
“I think she made it up completely!” Dr. Oz said. He sounded angry. “Y–y–you know what it’s — it’s — it’s called, it’s called lying also. It’s called being a liar.”
“This f**king girl reporter,” Mrs. Oz said. “This is the girl reporter who broke into some guy’s house and stole all his photo albums.” She was referring to an accusation made up by disgraced ex-Trump aide Corey Lewandowski in retaliation after I had reported details of his Single White Male obsession with a White House official. ...
Dr. Oz paused. “Did someone lock the door?”
“No,” Mrs. Oz said.
“We’ve got to do it,” Dr. Oz said.
Fortunately, Oz the candidate is not nearly as media savvy as Oz the TV doctor, according to Nuzzi’s profile, and that’s not including the phone malpractice. Oz has had trouble articulating his platform and reaching out to conservative influencers. He’s got quite a bit of baggage, too. Besides the fact that he’s a New Jersey voter with the distinct odor of a scam artist, there’s this:
An elite, pro-choice, anti-gun, transgender-child-supporting, Michelle Obama–hugging Muslim carpet-bagger and Turkish-army veteran who once announced on national television that his testicles descend in such a way that his penis curves to the left. That is a sample of the data conservative Republicans cite as proof that Dr. Oz is a threat to their plans to win the Senate in 2022. And that’s just what they’ve identified in the vast public record available courtesy of Dr. Oz himself. The oppo researchers have barely started.
Sure, Oz could be a boon for the Democrats but we also know that in 21st century America, a lying, unqualified grifter can win.
