by DemFromCT
Anyone remember Roman Hruska?
Responding to criticism that [Nixon SCOTUS nominee G Harrold] Carswell had been a mediocre judge, Hruska claimed that:
"So what if he is mediocre? There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises, Cardozos, and Frankfurters and stuff like that there."[1]
Well, Bush certainly has taken that message to heart (Chertoff, Thompson), except when his choices have been disastrous (Rumsfeld, Brown, Gonzales). None have been "stuff like that there" and, alas, .James Holsinger Jr as the Surgeon General nominee doesn't break the mold.
From the Seattle PI Editorial Board:
Dr. Richard Carmona said that as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, he was censored on stem cells, sex ed, emergency contraception, prison health care, mental illness and global health. He said conversations with predecessors revealed that political pressure was common, but never to the degree he experienced.
We have seen the administration's arrogant disdain for independent science on environmental matters. But it is embarrassing to have a surgeon general so thoroughly squelched in a country where one of them, Luther Terry, had used the truth to help set billions of people worldwide free from tobacco addiction and another, C. Everett Koop, sounded the alarm about AIDS.
Bush has nominated as Carmona's permanent successor Dr. James Holsinger Jr., who wrote in 1991 that homosexual sex is unnatural and unhealthy. The choice is absurd. We'd be better off without a surgeon general than with one willing to rubber stamp ideology as science.
Carmona's testimony is here if you missed it. And the Senate can do us all a favor and not confirm Holsinger so we don't have to live through another disastrous pick pretending that "sound science" has anything to do with science (and here we need to remember Mark Twain):
The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
Sigh. Another Bush ideological pick to shore up his wavering base. Kinda makes you nostalgic for simply mediocre.
From what modicum of knowledge I had about Carmona over the years here in Arizona, I thought he was a mixed bag when he was nominated. Preferable to a lot of the people Bush might would consider, and did consider as I recall; but that was about the extent of the "plus side" of the equation. Now, like Ashcroft, Carmona seems all warm and fuzzy admirable simply because he evidences one microscopic wafer thin reed of honesty and propriety than the other raping, pillaging, plundering, corrupt, backwards, criminal sacks of manure in the Bush Administration. How pathetic we have become for this to be the case.
Posted by: bmaz | July 12, 2007 at 16:36
so what is the count of names on this list ???
Shinseki, Snowe (the tresury sec), Larry Lindsey (Mr $200 Billion Iraq invasion estimate)
is there a competent person who has EVER left the bush administration without denouncing the incompetence of bush's method of placing policy over facts ???
(crickets)
Posted by: freepatriot | July 12, 2007 at 17:53