Originally Posted by Wall Street Journal

Surgeon Corporal
July 12, 2007; Page A14

Iraq aside, the big political story of the week seems to be that Richard Carmona believes he was gagged, if not bound, by the Bush Administration during his tenure as Surgeon General from 2002-2006. Dr. Carmona made his case before Henry Waxman's never-sleeping House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on Tuesday, and most media outlets played it up.

At the beginning of his tenure as the country's top doctor, he "was still quite politically naive in the ways of the Beltway," Dr. Carmona said. "As I witnessed partisanship and political manipulation, I was astounded and unsure of what I was witnessing . . . [and] whether this was the norm for all Surgeons General." Cue the ominous music.

We hate to ruin a political scandal, but isn't this a tad overwrought as a story line? Let's assume that Bush officials did tell him to keep mum on such issues as embryonic stem cell research and sex education. This is what appointed officials of any Administration are expected to do -- support the policies of an elected President. If Dr. Carmona really thinks that the Surgeon General should be above politics, "naive" is not the first adjective that comes to mind.

Dr. Carmona says he was especially offended that his voice wasn't welcome on matters of "science." He misses a critical distinction: Science may inform policy, but it's no substitute for the political judgments that properly play a role in guiding public policy. In the area of stem cells, for instance, there is no ban on debating the science -- only a question of whether and to what extent it should be publicly funded.

In any case, Dr. Carmona was not an indentured servant. If he disagreed so profoundly with President Bush's policy, he could have resigned. Honorable people do it all the time, and no one should take a job in Washington unless he is prepared to resign to defend his principles. That Dr. Carmona failed to resign over so long a period suggests that his personal moral agony was rather less tortured than he now makes it seem.

Alternatively, the good doctor could have done what some of his predecessors chose to do: Speak up anyway, and face the consequences, such as being fired. C. Everett Koop did that on AIDS during the Reagan Administration and became a hero to the media establishment that had once dismissed him as an anti-abortion zealot. Joycelyn Elders also chose to use her pulpit to endorse creative sex education in public schools, at least until the Clinton Administration asked her to resign.

Either decision would have been more honorable than the one Dr. Carmona chose to indulge -- which is to engage in a late hit on the President who appointed him, and only now that he will pay no personal price and it is politically fashionable to do so.