Competing ideas were ‘ignored, marginalized, or simply buried’

July 10, 2007

Dr. Richard Carmona, Bush’s first appointed Surgeon General, never quite fit in as the rigid right-wing ideologue the president likes to have around. He disagreed with the White House on a variety of public health issues (stem-cell research, sexual health), and even suggested he’d like to see all tobacco products banned in the United States.

Today, Carmona told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he wanted to use his stature as the “nation’s doctor” to speak out on issues, but the Bush gang wouldn’t let him.

[A]lthough most Americans believe that their Surgeon General has the ability to impact the course of public health as “the nation’s doctor,” the reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas. Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological, or political agenda is ignored, marginalized, or simply buried.

Carmona revealed that when he tried to explain the science of stem cell research to the American public, he was “blocked at every turn, told a decision had already been made, stand down, don’t talk about it.” Additionally, political appointees were specifically assigned to “vet his speeches” and “spin [his] words in such a way that would be preferable to a political or ideologically pre-conceived notion that had nothing to do with science.” He was also barred from speaking freely to reporters.

I started drawing up an informal list of non-partisan offices and federal agencies that the Bush gang have politicized to an unprecedented extent, but quickly gave up — the list was too long and it became too depressing.

Of course, there is another Surgeon General nominee who’s status is not only pending, but is getting more interesting.

As regular readers know, Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., Bush’s new nominee for Surgeon General, has become quite controversial given his background as an anti-gay activist. In 1991, Holsinger went so far as to write a paper arguing that, from a medical perspective, homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy, a position rejected by professionals as prioritizing political ideology over science.

In response, conservatives expressed exasperation. “Can’t we have one confirmation hearing without a culture-war fight?” the typical Bush ally argued. “Does every nomination have to meet some kind of ideological litmus test?”

And then these same conservatives learned that Holsinger supports stem-cell research. Now they’re not so sure about his qualifications, either.

Homosexual advocacy groups are objecting strongly to President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, but Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. also faces questions from conservative groups about his views on human cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research.

Tom McCluskey, vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, said that Dr. Holsinger spoke to a Kentucky state legislature committee in 2002 and “testified in support of loosening regulations around cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research.”

“We’re not supportive of his nomination right now,” Mr. McCluskey said, adding that “we’ve been told he’s come around on the issue, but the surgeon general is such a strong bully pulpit position that we want to be sure.”

Sometimes, these guys crack me up.

Except for the old Soviet Union’s problem with inheritance of acquired characteristics, certain Nazi-era theories of race and Roman Catholic antipathy toward evolution, I can’t recall any culture-war fights in science since the Middle Ages. Leave it to 21st century American ignorance and Know Nothingism to bring it all back.

  • “Sometimes, these guys crack me up”. Yeah CB, I crack up too, so much so, that I just drift into crying.

  • Sometime ideologues can’t see themselves as political or partisan. To them, the other people who don’t see things the same as they are the political ones. More than anything, it is the ideologues of this Adminstration who have politicized things like say science and reason, as these two human inquiries are often at odds with their predisposed beliefs. To me, these delusional partisans who harbor themselves in the Executive branch have been advocating a tradition of ignorance instead of inventiveness. In all my lifetime, I have believed America stands for the latter tradition, not the former – but then again most of my lifetime has been spent prior to the deliverance of this Bush WH, for two terms nonetheless! -Kevo

  • “…but the surgeon general is such a strong bully pulpit position that we want to be sure.”

    Yes, sure that he only says things that the Talevan wants him to say. Christ, if the thought of science being held hostage by a bunch of cretins who wouldn’t understand the empirical method if you stuck a lit Bunsen burner up them doesn’t keep you up at night, I don’t know what will.

    But I wonder if Holeslinger can creep back into the Talevan’s good graces by saying he only supports the destruction of zygotes that are suspected of being gay.

    tAiO

    p.s. Does anyone remember how quickly Terri Schiavo’s parents stopped being the darlings of the Life Brigade when it came out they supported stem cell research? Maybe Hole-y can commiserate with them.

  • I love how these “conscience stricken” cronies always wait several years before coming forward with their concerns, as if they’re waiting for Bush to wake up and say “Holy shit, all that stuff I did was really evil! Maybe I should change!”

    Christine Todd Whitman is my favorite example. She sees Bush basically gut the clean air act, knowing how many thousands of innocent people that will kill, and she waits years to finally tell anyone.

    Rot in hell, you bastards.

  • H. L. Mencken foresaw a similar government to this one, when he suggested, “As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron”.

    “Bush” and “Science” should be uncomfortable in the same sentence, never mind in the same room or the same policy. Mencken was, however, prescient when he suggested the plain folk of America wanted a president who was more like themselves. I’m sure you, like me, are sick of hearing how Bush would be a great guy to go have a beer with – offered with simple longing for companionship, no doubt, by those who would be willing to overlook the fact that he is an alcoholic – but I believe therein lies a clue to how things have come around to the way they are today.

    The simple folk confused folksiness with ignorance, and wished for a president as ignorant and incurious as themselves. That’s exactly what they got. Unfortunately, it coincided with the rise of a Vice-President who was far from ignorant, and who saw a golden opportunity.

  • Wouldn’t it easier to draw up a list of agencies that hadn’t been politized? Of course that would be like looking for a needle in a haystack so I guess it wouldn’t be easier.

  • Steve honey, even though it makes you cry, it’s a list that needs to be worked up.

    And when you write the list of people who spoke out years later, please don’t forget Colin Powell. And the guys from the office of Faith Based Initiatives. Wasn’t there also a NASA leader recently? Seems to me, those folks get their “come to Jesus” moments years after they could have counted for anything. And as such, they need to be as heartily condemned for allowing it to go on under their watch. Not a corageous person amongst them.

    And methinks Carmona kept his job for as long as he did, because he wasn’t flagrantly pushing masterbation.

  • t’s extremely depressing. We all know it will take years to undo the politization of federal agencies that Bush team has done and even then it will not completely undo it, and that is if they stop Bush today. He’s got a year and a half left to rampage through the government.
    I’m beginning to believe our congressional leaders are a bunch of old men who lack the energy to deal with the Bush administration. Maybe we should lobby for more staff to deal with all the residue Bush is leaving behind.

    Political appointees should not even be in the Surgeon generals office. He should have no “supervisors” and should be transparent to public inquiry. Because none of these things are true what we have is a Public Health puppet for the Bush administration’s corporate interests.

    Even when the public official in office comes out and tells us that the department is politicized and dysfunctional all congress wants to do is appoint another official to continue the fraud while we just sit back and pay for it to continue.
    Congress appears to be just as dysfunctional for allowing this practice to continue.

    How desperately do we need a champion in the media. Some tireless and ruthless individual backed by a company with the same qualities to stand up and question daily the activities of this administration, calling them out on their lies and corruption.

    It used to be like that in this country. Reporters ignored politics and investigated for the truth of a story. Now only the internet does such reporting and if people were exposed to the ‘net’ truth as much as TV and Radio news public opinion would demand accountability now.

    Since Bush we haven’t had a real Surgeon General or Attorney general or an EPA or…my god , you’re right

    “… the list was too long and it became too depressing.”

  • Does every nomination have to meet some kind of ideological litmus test?”…Now they’re not so sure about his qualifications, either.

    Conservative ideology is a lot more trouble than it’s worth.

  • This is utterly preposterous. The reports in question detailed minor technical problems with the oversight of the NSL program and recommended methods for correcting these problems. If anything they showed an overabundance of concern about privacy issues. Typical leftist Bush/Gonzales Derangement Syndrome.

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