There's a Surgeon General Still?

I like to think of myself as fairly knowledgeable about national political events. But Richard Carmona's powerful testimony yesterday about politicization in the Surgeon General's office was the first time I ever heard his name. Apparently he was Surgeon General for four years. Who knew?

The point I'm making is that under the Bush Administration, all of the power in an isolated executive branch is vested in just a couple people. The Cabinet secretaries do next to nothing, the federal agency heads do next to nothing, and the only time they make any noise or get any press is when they explain how they're prevented from doing anything.

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.

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 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.

These organs of the executive branch actually used to play a major role in shaping policy and providing a spotlight on issues. Now they're press release conduits from the White House Press Office. The systematic destruction of the executive branch is an often-unremarked-upon, yet major element of the Bush Administration's crimes against the state.

As for the politicization of the top public health official, I mean look, you have a President who doesn't want to deliver health care to CHILDREN. You're surprised by this why?

(By the way, the failure to deliver on SCHIP is a moral failure. Democrats should force Republican bastards to deny children medical care. I'm sure it'd do wonders for their public image.)