Scumbags in Bush administration put politics over science

Ex-Surgeon General Says Administration Interfered

Accusations that the Bush administration is playing politics with science are nothing new. But Tuesday, those charges came from one of the administration's own appointees ?- former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona.

The hearing before the House Government Reform Committee actually featured three former surgeons general; Carmona, Dr. David Satcher, who served under President Bill Clinton, and Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served under President Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush.

Koop and Satcher each faced challenges: Koop fought the Reagan administration over his work on the AIDS epidemic, while Satcher fought the Clinton administration over his support for needle-exchange programs to prevent the spread of HIV.

But all three agreed that none faced the sorts of political challenges that confronted Carmona, who finished his four-year term last year. He testified that the very position of surgeon general is in grave danger.

"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," Carmona said. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried."

Carmona said when he first came to Washington in 2002, he was somewhat naïve.

He recalled a meeting where senior White House officials talked about global warming as a liberal cause with no merit.

"I remember thinking, 'I know why they want me here, they want me to discuss the science; they don't understand the science.' So I had this scientific discussion for about a half an hour, and I was never invited back to the meeting."

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