Barack Obama is said to be adding a bit of celebrity to his Cabinet.

Not Judge Judy for attorney general, but Dr. Sanjay Gupta for surgeon general. Name sound familiar? It should. 

Gupta is CNN’s medical guru and all-around cool medical dude. He would, by far, be one of the most — if not the most — high-profile surgeon generals in history. Having Obama add a bit of TV fame to his roster of advisers was a bit surprising, and there are some who are scratching their heads, but not about his qualifications, per se.

Liberal economist extraordinaire Paul Krugman reminded us in his blog about Gupta hammering Michael Moore over his movie, "Sicko."

Krugman writes:

It’s sort of a minor-league version of the way people who pointed out in real time that Bush was misleading us into war are to this day considered less "serious" than people who waited until it was fashionable to reach that conclusion. And appointing Gupta now, although it’s a small thing, is just another example of the lack of accountability that always seems to be the rule when you get things wrong in a socially acceptable way."

But many others say Gupta’s a great choice. The surgeon general’s job description is that he/she "serves as America’s chief health educator by providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury."

Providing information in an easy-to-understand fashion is one of Gupta’s trademarks. 

"There’s no one in the United States better at communicating many complex health issues to the community than Dr. Gupta," Dr. James Curran, dean of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, told The Atlanta Journal Constitution.

CNN says Obama’s team likes the fact that Gupta, who now lives in Atlanta, has worked in government (as special adviser to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1997), and also likes his stellar career as a neurosurgeon. But his communication skills were a huge draw. He regularly appears on "American Morning," anchors the weekend "House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta," does CNN documentaries, hosts a weekly podcast called "Paging Dr. Gupta" and provides medical segments for the syndicated version of "ER" on TNT. 

When the U.S. went to war in Iraq in 2003, Gupta was embedded with a Navy unit called Devil Docs. While covering the doctors in his capacity as a journalist, Gupta put on his doctor’s hat as well, performing brain surgery five times, the first of which was on a two-year-old Iraqi boy.

"Someone like Sanjay, who both has medical experience and is fantastic at communicating – I think that’s a perfect combination for the surgeon general," said CNN commentator Hilary Rosen.