Last week, we noted that the Family Research Council had suddenly fallen silent regarding the nomination of Dr. James Holsinger to be Surgeon General after initially praising his "impeccable" credentials and issuing a prayer alert hoping that he would “receive an honest and fair hearing.”
Of course, at that time, all that was known about the nominee was that he once wrote a report claiming that homosexual sex was dangerous and unnatural – and that was enough for FRC to come running to his defense.
But then FRC found out that Holsinger had once "testified in support of loosening regulations around cloning and embryonic-stem-cell research" and suddenly Holsinger’s impeccable credentials didn’t matter quite as much and all FRC would say was that the organization was “not supportive of his nomination right now.”
That was last week, and FRC is no longer being circumspect:
At his confirmation hearing yesterday Dr. Holsinger recanted his earlier statement, saying his views had "evolved" and that the issues he raised are not relevant in public health discussions today. While not an expert in human anatomy, I am 100% sure that human beings have not "evolved" into asexual beings, as Dr. Holsinger's new comments would suggest. Dr. Holsinger's confirmation should not fail because of his views, but because of his seeming lack of conviction on any of them.
Got that? It’s not because of Holsinger’s “views” might not match FRC’s that he should not be confirmed, but because he is not sufficiently committed to them. So, if Holsinger had initially claimed that homosexuality was not dangerous and unnatural and stuck by that view in his confirmation hearing, would FRC have supported his nomination, since he had demonstrated enough “conviction”?
But FRC is not satisfied with simply opposing this specific nominee - they are now calling for the office of the Surgeon General to be eliminated all together:
So to save the taxpayers’ money, to eliminate yet another unneeded voice in the health-care cacophony, to free up a uniform for the local high school’s Pirates of Penzance performance and to save C-SPAN viewers from any more surgeon-general alumni reunion tours like last week’s hearings — eliminate the Office of Surgeon General today.
