Vivek Murthy has three Ivy degrees and teaches at Harvard Medical School. He's likely the next surgeon general of the United States. He's an Indian-American. And in this video from his confirmation hearing yesterday, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) wants him to know that his people are just wonderful!

Slate's Dave Weigel, who was possibly the only journalist paying much attention to Murthy's Senate testimony yesterday during the Beltway Obamacare freakout, caught Roberts' kindly-old-white-man-from-Kansas moment:

Roberts: "You ever been to Dodge City, Kansas?" Murthy: "I have not, sir. But I would love to come." Roberts: "Well, good. I'm going to invite you, because we have a lovely doctor from India. She's in her mid-30s, and she's highly respected by the community. And another doctor from India that did my carpal tunnel when I did a stupid thing. And so, I think you'd be right at home, and we would welcome you."

Thank God Roberts knew some Indian doctors. This could have been really awkward if he'd just fallen back on the time he stopped in a Sunoco outside Wichita and met that nice young cashier.