Orszag Is a Hot, Sexy Nerd

Peter Orszag is possessed of a “uniquely pernicious form of roguishness” that Meghan Daum likes to call “recovering-nerd syndrome.” The White House budget director has “long been known around Washington as a ladies man,” even if you don’t believe the rumors that he dumped his pregnant girlfriend to date and then get engaged to a Penelope Cruz lookalike. The now-powerful Orszag is compensating “for all those cheerleaders who ignored” him.

In midlife, Daum writes in the Los Angeles Times, Orszag is playing “high school quarterback” and doing what other recovering nerds “couldn't do in high school: dating as many hot women as they can—and then dumping them.” Interestingly, Daum thinks Orszag’s particular pathology is dying out as the quarterback loses favor and the “brainiacs take over." So, “ladies, if you want a nice guy, a reliable guy, date the former high school quarterback, as long as he didn’t turn into a Rhodes scholar.” (More Peter Orszag stories.)