Bush, the Surgeon General and The Romanian Cult of Personality

Writing in The Nation, favorite University of Wisconsin professor from garduate schools days, Stanley I. Kulter,  reminds us that, in light of testimony of former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, that:

Carmona asserted that the apparatchiks insisted he mention the President three times on every page of his speeches--what substantive information could he offer with such a requirement? The Stalinist Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu required his scientists to mention his name and his wife, Elena, in their speeches or papers. So far, we have no known requirement that Laura Bush receive equal time.

For the entire article by the distinguished scholar, the foremost authority on Richard Nixon and the Watergate Tapes, turn to:  The Surgeon General's Commissars:

Carmona offered a carefully calibrated account of the Administration's insistence that politics trumps science and wise social policies--but without publicly naming names. He testified that Bush officials weakened or suppressed public health reports to suit their political agenda. He was prohibited from making any speeches or reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, global health, public health of the prison population or mental health issues. The Surgeon General's report on the dangers of secondhand smoke was delayed for years. Dr. Carmona was expected to support Republican candidates and to attend political briefings. When the stem cells issue emerged, he said that "I was told to stand down and not speak about it." And he had to submit his speeches to vetting and--call it by the right name--censorship; specifically, any remarks on stem cell issues were removed from his speeches