Testifying under oath before a congressional panel yesterday, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona reported that top Bush administration officials tried to suppress reports on important matters of public health. According to the NY Times:
[t]he 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.
On issue after issue, Dr. Carmona said, the administration made decisions about important public health issues based solely on political considerations, not scientific ones.
“I was told to stay away from those because we’ve already decided which way we want to go,” Dr. Carmona said.
Although the Bush administration may not regard public health as a matter of concern for the nation's seniormost public health official, the administration does expect the Surgeon General to use his time and energies to boost the president's public image and support Republican candidates for elective office:
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.
In his testimony, Dr. Carmona said that at first he was so politically naïve that he had little idea how inappropriate the administration’s actions were. He eventually consulted six previous surgeons general, Republican and Democratic, and all agreed, he said, that he faced more political interference than they had.
A Puerto Rican-American raised in Harlem, Vice Admiral Carmona enlisted in the US Army after dropping out of high school in the 1960s. Carmona joined the Army Special Forces and is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran. After earning an Army GED, Carmona completed college and graduated from UCSF Medical School at the top of his class. He completed a surgical residency and a fellowship in trauma, burns and critical care. In 1998, Carmona earned a Masters of Public Health at the University of Arizona.
Reacting to Carmona's testimony, 27-year-old administration spokesperson and former executive assistant to Karl Rove, Emily Lawrimore, said:
the surgeon general “is the leading voice for the health of all Americans.”
“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.”
It is completely understandable that the Clemson '02 speech major and Bush spokesperson is very, very disappointed in Vice Admiral Carmona for giving in to pressure from top Bush administration officials. I mean, like OMG, Carmona is such a ho. You know, like, you shouldn't just say whatever your bosses in the administration want you to say.
That's little disappointed Emily, on the left, in the photo below. You can tell she is a person of great substance who knows all about doing the right thing because there are lots of flags and photos of politicians around her.
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