Holsinger: “Who’s more dangerous to the nation’s health, Osama Bin Laden or Dick Cheney’s lesbian daughter? You got me.”
Matt Gunterman July 16th, 2007
This bit of questioning of Dr. James W. Holsinger by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) during the former’s confirmation hearing for U.S. Surgeon General escaped my attention the other day. I can’t say that his response will win any converts to his support. This from the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Malia Rulon:
WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown turned to an unusual line of questioning during the Senate confirmation hearing last Thursday of James Holsinger, a former chancellor of the University of Kentucky medical center tapped by President Bush to be the next surgeon general.
Holsinger has drawn fire over a paper he wrote 16 years ago declaring that gay sex was unhealthy and unnatural. That prompted Brown, a Democrat, to ask: “There have been reports that over 50 Arabic translators have been fired from the Pentagon simply because they are gay. Given your past statements on homosexuality, what do you see as a greater threat to the health and safety of Americans: untranslated documents and intercepts from al-Qaida, or gay people?”
Holsinger, not surprisingly, didn’t know quite what to say.
“Well, that’s certainly an interesting question that you have posed, senator. I’ve not had an opportunity to think through, as you might guess, an answer to that question at all,” he said. “I would have grave concern for having the effective translators that we might need in order to be able to provide for the safety for our American people.”
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- James W. Holsinger , Surgeon General
- Comments(1)
The last thing Bush wants is “another C.Everett Koop”. Reagan appointed Koop, but ended up hounding him & pressuring him just like Bush did Surgeon General Richard Carmona. The health issue then was Cigarettes. Republicans are still furious about the progress (hard fought!!) toward a “Smoke Free Society 2000″, the educational campaign to prevent teen smoking & to get adults to quit, which Koop launched.
The Tobacco Lobby is still tremendously powerful, & Bush & Karl Rove (former TOBACCO lawyer), Mitch McConnell, & now politicos like Fred Thompson (the “handsome star” of “Law & Order” who may run for Prez), who is a former TOBACCO lobbyist, the American Enterprise Institute, etc. etc. all are furious that the Democrats took over (somewhat) control of Congress’s Agenda: the Republicans & Bush were well on their way to rolling back much of the progress made by Health advocates on Smoking.
Among Democrats, I hope Al Gore runs with Obama! He’ll care as much for Clean INDOOR Air, as he does for Clean OUTDOOR Air Environment.