What Political Cronyism Gets Us

Today the Washington Post reports that William R. Steiger, a Bush appointee, blocked a 2006 surgeon general’s report that “described the link between poverty and poor health” because “the report did not promote the administration’s policy accomplishments.” Steiger — who has no “background or expertise in medicine or public health” — is “a specialist in education and scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties President Bush and Vice President Cheney.”

Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Since 2001, Steiger has run the Office of Global Health Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services.

This is akin to Julie McDonald the engineer who was in bed with Bush cronies in California who harassed biologists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service over biological principles and biological integrity.

Steiger (named after one of the most destructive farm implements on earth) has as much health expertise being a Latin American history major as did Julie McDonald. Still he was allowed to oversee the dispensing of Administration hubris that replaced the scientific information he was entrusted with.

This is hardly news any more. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has as one of its Assistant Directors a history major who happened to be fathered by a once-powerful Senator from Alaska. The same agency has as its "Science" Advisor someone who possesses a degree in Political Science and spent many years as a Hill staffer. Mark Ray, a political hack who once ran a lobbying group that wanted to implement Bush's "No Tree Left Behind" policy long before Bush was anointed as resident is now an Assistant Secretary of Agriculture over the Forest Service. The list goes on and on.

None of this should come as a shock to anyone any more. But its still uncalled for and needs to be addressed. It wont be addressed in the cronyism saturated Bush Abomination but will be when an adult takes control on January 20, 2009.