This really isn’t funny anymore. It’s as if the Bush White House goes out of its way to find the most dramatic incompetents in the federal government — so they’ll know who to promote when key positions open up.
The latest is the HHS cabinet slot, which Tommy Thompson is rumored to be leaving. The Washington Times, a right-wing daily owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, reported recently that Thompson’s replacement is already on deck.
Word around Capitol Hill is that Dr. Mark McClellan, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, is at “the top of the list” to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.
Mr. Thompson hasn’t formally announced his departure, but he has indicated his desire to move on.
Dr. McClellan, formerly an economics professor at Stanford University, was an economics and health care adviser in the Bush administration before becoming FDA commissioner in 2002. His brother, Scott McClellan, is the White House press secretary.
Oh, of course, the FDA. When looking for people to promote to cabinet posts, we should of course turn to the head of an agency that has been so recklessly incompetent that it’s put countless American lives at risk. Great idea.
That would be the same FDA that:
* knew about the flu vaccine shortage for over a year and decided to do nothing about it.
* is “virtually incapable of protecting America” from unsafe medication because it is so cozy with the pharmaceutical industry.
* deleted information on the risks of antidepressant drugs from records submitted to Congress and then concealed the deletions.
* removes experts from public health panels if they criticize drug manufacturers.
* fought any and all proposals to reimport prescription drugs for American consumers, usually with nonsensical explanations.
* gives tips to pharmaceutical industry insiders on how to escape oversight from its own agency regulations.
Yes, let’s take the head of this agency and give him a promotion. Indeed, Mark McClellan is uniquely well-suited for a position in the Bush cabinet in light of his refusal to answer Senate questions (on two separation occasions) about his opposition to importing prescription drugs and the awards he’s received from the pharmaceutical industry.
In fact, when John McCain said McClellan has done “a great disservice” by trying to scare senior citizens about the benefits of reimportation, we should have known immediately that McClellan would become one of Bush’s favorites.
The mind reels.