Prognosis poor

The Baltimore Sun

As the latest nominee for surgeon general prepares to face a Senate committee today, it's hard to know which is in worse condition: Dr. James Holsinger's prospects for confirmation or the future of the job itself.

Dr. Holsinger arrives with the baggage of some controversial positions on homosexuality and stem cell research that have alienated interest groups on the left and the right. And he's coming days after his predecessor, Richard H. Carmona, gave Congress an outraged account of how the Bush White House muzzled his views on such critical issues as mental health and secondhand smoke, forcing him instead to address medical topics from a politically censored script.

The convergence of these events - particularly the former surgeon general's appalling account, even for this White House, of being stripped of his dignity and credibility - add strength to growing sentiment for abolishing the job altogether. If the nation's top doctor can't draw on personal experience and training to offer his best judgment about improving the health of Americans, he's useless.

Giving up on the surgeon general would not be the preferred outcome. Past occupants of the position have sounded the alarm on tobacco and awakened the nation to the AIDS epidemic. A trusted, independent voice in that bully pulpit could be extremely valuable on such diverse issues as expanding the reach of health insurance and responding to the threat of bioterrorists.

It's up to Dr. Holsinger to convince senators today that he's up to the task. The cardiologist he spent many years as a public health official, including two years as health secretary for Kentucky, where he lobbied successfully for a law limiting access to junk food in schools.

But gay activists are troubled by a paper he wrote in 1991 as a lay leader for the United Methodist Church in which he argued that anal sex between men was unhealthy because the human body wasn't designed for it, yet observed that the same act is performed by heterosexual couples without consequence. Meanwhile, conservatives are alarmed about Dr. Holsinger's opposition to an anti-cloning bill in the Kentucky legislature, which he said would impede research.

Dr. Holsinger's views may not matter if the White House is going to censor all his material anyway. In that case, the job should be left open in hopes the next administration will be less manipulative of public servants.

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