We see more and more evidence each day that our democracy is in jeopardy and we’re just a stone’s-throw away from being under the rule of a dictatorship. Just another case of the “decider knows best” I suppose.

Undue Influence

Former surgeon general Joycelyn Elders on what happens when politics trumps science in the office of the nation’s top doctor.

Former surgeon general Richard Carmona testified that he faced intense political pressure from the Bush administration. Left: Joycelyn Elders, who held the office in the Clinton administration, asks, ‘If all he is going to do is be the president’s mouthpiece, what does the country need with a surgeon general?’

July 12, 2007 - On Thursday, President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James Holsinger, faced blunt questioning at his Senate confirmation hearing about how he would react if he were pressured to put politics before science. “I would resign,” Holsinger said.

If history is any indication, he’s likely to be tested on that promise. Earlier in the week, three former surgeons general-including Dr. Richard Carmona, the most recent occupant of that august office-testified before Congress that he felt intense political pressure. Carmona, who left office in July, said that the Bush administration had delayed his reports and changed his speeches on controversial issues such as smoking and stem cells. “Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried,” he testified. That came as no surprise to Joycelyn Elders, who served as surgeon general from 1993 to 1994 under President Bill Clinton; she was asked to step down after her comments about masturbation’she called it “a part of human sexuality, and is part of something that perhaps should be taught”’stirred up a political controversy of their own.

(Mary Carmichael, Newsweek)

Full article at MSNBC.com