Ex-Surgeon General: Bush Muzzled Me

(CBS/AP)  President Bush's most recent surgeon general accused the administration Tuesday of muzzling him for political reasons on hot-button health issues such as emergency contraception and abstinence-only education.

Dr. Richard Carmona, the nation's 17th surgeon general, told lawmakers that all surgeons general have had to deal with politics but none more so than he.

For example, he said he wasn't allowed to make a speech at the Special Olympics because it was viewed as benefiting a political opponent. However, he said was asked to speak at events designed to benefit Republican lawmakers.

"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," said Carmona, who served from 2002 to 2006.

Responding, the White House said Carmona was given the authority and had the obligation to be the leading voice for the health of all Americans.

"It's disappointing to us if he failed to use his position to the fullest extent in advocating for policies he thought were in the best interests of the nation," said Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto. "We believe Dr. Carmona received the support necessary to carry out his mission."

Politicians trying to control the message is nothing new, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. President Clinton axed Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders after she expressed liberal ideas about sex education in schools.

Confirmation hearings are scheduled to be held Thursday for Dr. James. Holsinger Jr., the Kentucky cardiologist Bush nominated as the nation's 18th surgeon general. The nomination has been criticized by gay rights groups.

Carmona testified Tuesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Also appearing were Drs. C. Everett Koop, who served as surgeon general from 1981-1889, and David Satcher, who served from 1998-2001.

"Political interference with the work of the surgeon general appears to have reached a new level in this administration," said committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Koop is probably the most recognized former surgeon general. He talked about AIDS as a public health issue rather than a moral issue, which won him many admirers and some critics. He said President Reagan was pressed to fire him every day, but Reagan would not interfere.

Koop said that after he left office he had more access to the secretary of Health and Human Services than his successor, Satcher, and that embarrassed him. "Dr. Carmona was treated with even less respect than Dr. Satcher," Koop said.

A report condemning secondhand smoke was a hallmark of Carmona's tenure.

Another report, on global health challenges, was never released after the administration demanded changes that he refused to make, Carmona said.

"I was told this would be a political document or you're not going to release it." Carmona said. "I said it can't be a political document because the surgeon general never releases political documents. I release scientific documents that will help our elected officials and the citizens understand the complex world we live in and what their responsibilities are."

He refused to identify the officials who sought the changes.

Carmona said he believed the surgeon general should show leadership on health issues. But his speeches were edited by political appointees, and he was told not to talk about certain issues. For example, he supported comprehensive sex education that would include abstinence in the curriculum, rather than focusing solely on abstinence.

"However, there was already a policy in place that didn't want to hear the science, but wanted to quote, unquote preach abstinence, which I felt was scientifically incorrect," Carmona said.

[tibu987]

Subject: Fw: Machiavellian


Read the definition and think which political person(s) immediately comes to your mind?


Mach%u2022i%u2022a%u2022vel%u2022li%u2022an

Pronunciation: (mak"%u0113-u-vel'%u0113-un), [key]
%u2014adj.
1. of, like, or befitting Machiavelli.
2. being or acting in accordance with the principles of government analyzed in Machiavelli's The Prince, in which political expediency is placed above morality and the use of craft and deceit to maintain the authority and carry out the policies of a ruler is described.
3. characterized by subtle or unscrupulous cunning, deception, expediency, or dishonesty: He resorted to Machiavellian tactics in order to get ahead.

Yeah, me too.

[lars008-2009]

When someone who works for Bush says they were muzzled...isn't that kind of silly?

What do they think their job is anyway.

It's to be a puppet...puppets don't speak words of their own!

DUH!
Posted by notbuynit at 04:08 PM : Jul 11, 2007

it means he has a book deal pending....

hahahaha

[notbuynit]

When someone who works for Bush says they were muzzled...isn't that kind of silly?

What do they think their job is anyway.

It's to be a puppet...puppets don't speak words of their own!

DUH!

[randalds]

A more appropriate question would be, "when it comes time to leave, will they take the paintings and china like the previous occupiers did?" :)

Posted by infidel_us at 10:50 AM : Jul 11, 2007

This is what as known as a lie. A right wing urban legend. It did not happen. The Clintons only took their personal possessions when they left the White House. The story that they took government property is a lie made up out of whole cloth by right wing pundits. They did not.

[randalds]

So, let's say, George and Laura have been married (happily or not, who cares) for so many years and have only two children. The rest of the time they must be in abstinence. OR???

What do you think??????

Posted by nikosk1 at 12:22 PM : Jul 11, 2007

Laura is a robot, so it doesn't matter for her and George gets his from his mistress, Condi Rice.

[fjgajewski]

This is nothing new for GOP politics: business above the health of ordinary citizens. Think of how the air pollution in NYC and environs was handled after 9-11.

When Bush Sr. was in office, the EPA produced a draft document on the health effects of low-level electric and magnetic fields. The draft identified such as probable (I seem to remember that "probable" was the word used) human carcinogens. The Bush Sr. "science" people (lawyers all, I seem to recall) made the EPA delete this fact from the final document. Bad for business you know.

Imagine: the White House meddling in science. It's a disgrace. I agree. W and his circus intimus should gracefully resign at this juncture.

[infidel_us]

What do you think??????
Posted by nikosk1 at 12:22 PM : Jul 11, 2007

BJ's and cigars? Definately BJ's and cigars. :)

[lars008-2009]

Posted by forthepeopl1 at 12:35 PM : Jul 11, 2007

it doesn't matter which party is in the whitehouse... thay all do it... even clintoon did it...

and when you are in the whitehouse you will do it too...

it's called partisan politics...

hahahahaha

[forthepeopl1]

I HOPE EVERY AMERICAN AND ALL OUR ELECTED ARE GOING TO READ THIS, AND SEE THAT THIS ADMINASTRATION JUST KEEPS LAUGHING IN OUR FACES.WHILE THOUSANDS OF OUR TROOPS STILL DIE.
Last December, when Bush rebuffed a bipartisan exit strategy presented by the Iraq Study Group, he said he would leave the decision to withdraw from Iraq to his successor.

That question is "not going to face this government," Bush said, chuckling slightly at a news conference with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "because we made up our mind. We've made that part clear. It'll face future governments. There will be future opportunities for people to say, 'Well, it's not worth it. Let's just retreat.' "

Since then, nearly 700 more American soldiers have died in a war that has now lasted more than four years, lost the lives of more than 3,600 U.S. troops, cost $10 billion a month -- and cost Republicans control of the House and Senate.

[mcvet]

A more appropriate question would be, "when it comes time to leave, will they take the paintings and china like the previous occupiers did?" :)

Posted by infidel_us at 10:50 AM : Jul 11, 2007

I'll give this God awlful piece of Souther Fascist Garbage any painting or china he wants if he will leave RIGHT NOW! By the way, most of the garbage put out by this LYING Administration as to what the Clinton's did was shown to be yet MORE lies. Sieg Heil Bush!!