The Comment On My Blog Page
By
Leonard Zwelling
Recently I wrote a blog about the groupthink that plagued the Democrats during the Biden presidency that allowed Mr. Biden to remain in office and even think about running again despite clear signs of his cognitive degeneration. All those in Congress and in the White House who came in contact with the octogenarian president were aware that he had slipped—a lot. Yet, no one said anything. It was not until the debate against Mr. Trump in June of 2024 that the world knew beyond a doubt that Mr. Biden had no business running for president let alone being president. That day it became clear that Vice President Harris should have invoked the 25th Amendment and removed Mr. Biden from office. She did not. No one said anything even after it became obvious. Finally, the leaders of the Democrats, if you can call them that, persuaded Mr. Biden to drop out.
All of this gave us President Trump and the cult of worship that surrounds him. He is not impaired as far as I can tell, yet still he is surrounded by yes men and yes women who will cover up his side-stepping the law and any ethics violations surrounding self-dealing and conflicts of interest. Even if he left the White House tomorrow, Mr. Trump would leave as a richer man than when he entered even in 2025.
At the very end of my blog piece about groupthink, I implied that the same dynamic was at work at MD Anderson with an impaired president, or at least an absent one, weak support for the president with a lackluster executive leadership team that would acquiesce to anything Pisters wanted, and a cult of covering up the short falls of Dr. Pisters. Then, I got this comment on the blog:
The executives at MDACC have become a cult of personality. It truly resembles Trump cabinet meetings where each member has to shower him with obligatory praise before offering any comments. No gathering, meeting, zoom call at MDACC can be opened without first praising the president. They seem to be unaware that he has been trying to bail out for months, interviewing for the CEO job at NYU Langone where he was a finalist.
As far as I can tell from the internet, Dr. Pisters was not chosen at NYU, but where else is he looking? More importantly, why? Sure, the NYU job is said to pay far more than the MD Anderson job, but still, Dr. Pisters is very well compensated now. Is it about power? Or, is Dr. Pisters feeling the pressure of having accomplished very little in his years at Anderson and fearing that the truth (and the Board of Regents) is catching up with him?
The comment caught me by surprise. I have no idea who posted it, but he or she calls himself Cancer Doc and has intimate knowledge of the President’s Advisory Council meetings.
I hope someone from the Board of Regents reads my blog and the comments on it and questions Dr. Pisters about why he was seeking the NYU job and where else is he looking. They should know. The faculty and staff of MD Anderson should know.
The real question is why look? As far as I know, no one has ever left the MD Anderson presidency for another job. Why is Dr. Pisters looking? Or has the Board of Regents encouraged him to do so?
There’s a leadership vacuum at Anderson. Nature abhors a vacuum. It’s time for an organized filling of that vacuum. Of course, maybe that process has already started.
2 thoughts on “The Comment On My Blog Page”
If only it were true. Good riddance.
The overspending is finally catching up. The C-suite is enriching themselves, meanwhile I should increase my clinical activity and work weekends. Unbelievable.
Precisely. Unless and until the faculty say we have had enough and call for a vote of no confidence, he will be here collecting his millions while you toil in the clinic.