Just another sad sack ...

Neil Jacobs, then the nominee to be under secretary of commerce for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leaving Capitol Hill after testifying at his confirmation hearing in Washington in July.
Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Just another sad sack applies.

The Senate on Tuesday evening confirmed a new leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, installing Neil Jacobs, the acting director during the hurricane forecasting controversy of the first Trump administration known as “Sharpiegate.”

Dr. Jacobs, an atmospheric scientist and meteorologist who has stressed a strong desire to improve the accuracy of U.S. weather forecasting models, is generally respected across NOAA, which oversees much of the federal climate research that the administration has targeted for deep cuts.

But ...

At the same time, he has faced criticism and rebuke for his tenure during President Trump’s first term.

Dr. Jacobs was found to have violated NOAA’s code of ethics in 2020 after an investigation into an incident that centered on an altered hurricane forecast map President Trump presented in the Oval Office in 2019. The investigation found he had bowed to political pressure in releasing a statement critical of National Weather Service forecasters in Alabama, who had stressed on social media that Hurricane Dorian was not expected to affect that state, despite warnings to the contrary from Mr. Trump.