It seemed odd to me that we switched Surgeon Generals in the middle of an administration, but I guess George W did not like having someone around who actually wanted to do his job. Put it this way, he wanted a mouthpiece who would back-up his devastating policies and attacks on reproductive rights, and who would embrace his ideas even though they conflicted with evidence based medicine.

So Richard Carmona, who happens to be a really nice guy with a squeaky clean background (I met him), and one who has been on the frontlines as a medic and a nurse prior to becoming a physician, got the boot.

But now at least, he is speaking up. And letting the nation know how deadly George W. Bush is to our health–as if we don’t didn’t know that already, but it’s nice that the former Surgeon General has broken the silence.

From the Washington Post:

Former surgeon general Richard H. Carmona yesterday accused the Bush administration of muzzling him on sensitive public health issues, becoming the most prominent voice among several current and former federal science officials who have complained of political interference.

Carmona, a Bush nominee who served from 2002 to 2006, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that political appointees in the administration routinely scrubbed his speeches for politically sensitive content and blocked him from speaking out on public health matters such as stem cell research, abstinence-only sex education and the emergency contraceptive Plan B.

Ah yes, the insidious Plan B. George got his lap pups at the FDA to do his bidding on that, but even they couldn’t hold out forever. Then again, the FDA was simply living up to their name and reputation (Faith Drug Agency).

In one such case, Carmona, a former professor of surgery and public health at the University of Arizona, said he was told not to speak out during the national debate over whether the federal government should fund embryonic stem cell research, which President Bush opposes.

“Much of the discussion was being driven by theology, ideology, [and] preconceived beliefs that were scientifically incorrect,” said Carmona, one of three former surgeons general who testified at yesterday’s hearing. “I thought, ‘This is a perfect example of the surgeon general being able to step forward, educate the American public.’ . . . I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made — ‘Stand down. Don’t talk about it.’ That information was removed from my speeches.”

Carmona said that when the administration touted funding for abstinence-only education, he was prevented from discussing research on the effectiveness of teaching about condoms as well as abstinence. “There was already a policy in place that did not want to hear the science but wanted to just preach abstinence, which I felt was scientifically incorrect,” Carmona said.

The White House weenies of course deny this, giving the usual pre-digested rhetoric (their nonsensical statements are in the article). But I believe Carmona, because he’s not the only one who’s been ousted from Bushland. And there was no reason to replace him, except that he didn’t walk the Bush-line. He wanted to do his job.

Imagine if Koop hadn’t broken free of Reaganitis, and kept silent on AIDS in the 1980s? Imagine if he had allowed himself to be muzzled? To Reagan’s credit, he didn’t get rid of Koop, and I kind of think he was a little bit grateful that his staunch conservative Surgeon General flew the conservative coop (yes, a pun) of silence and pretending that AIDS didn’t exist, and became a staunch advocate of promoting sex ed, condom use, and demystifying AIDS. Reagan had a lot of friends in Hollywood–friends who were gay and dying of AIDS. Koop may have well been his Godsend, actually, because when all of the neo-cons got crazy over what was coming out of Koop’s mouth, Reagan could just shrug and say, “I don’t know, it’s not in my script. Go talk to Nancy.”

And no one wanted to mess with Nancy!