Yet another piece has emerged to fill out a pattern that has emerged about the Bush administration:
Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.
Note the words “public health” — so this should have been something that transcended politics.
But, in his testimony, Carmona made it clear that it did not:
The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down†a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.
And there is more. Most American administrations make a big point of trying to plug The Big Guy in the Oval Office’s image.
But apparently the Bush administration has taken this to an extent that it veers into Cult of Personality territory:
Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.
And what about an event that most Americans seemingly support — something that in past administrations of both parties was part of a national consensus that it was an event where party labels didn’t matter?
NOT:
And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family†that he refused to name.
“I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?’ †Dr. Carmona said.
The Special Olympics is one of the nation’s premier charitable organizations to benefit disabled people, and the Kennedys have long been deeply involved in it.
When asked after the hearing if that “prominent family†was the Kennedys, Dr. Carmona responded, “You said it. I didn’t.â€
And the official response to this?
The agencies responded on the issue. The White House responded in a statement that tried to discredit Carmona:
Bill Hall, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that the administration disagreed with Dr. Carmona’s statements. “It has always been this administration’s position that public health policy should be rooted in sound science,†Mr. Hall said.
Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said the surgeon general “is the leading voice for the health of all Americans.â€
“It’s disappointing to us,†Ms. Lawrimore said, “if he failed to use this position to the fullest extent in advocating for policies he thought were in the best interests of the nation.â€
This isn’t the first allegation from former (and in news stories some PRESENT) administration insiders charging that political agendas, political ideology and/or theology trumped science.
But there is a pattern, unlike any Americans have ever seen.
Most other administrations considered medical and science news just that and released it.
Past administrations celebrated and encouraged science.
This administration sometimes tries to suppress it.
NOTE: Typo has been fixed on the headline. TMV regrets the error.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.