Doesn't He Know He Just Lost an Election?
The president has just appointed a Christianist (to borrow Andrew Sullivan's term) to an important public policy position.
I quote from the
Washington Post:
The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."
Eric Keroack, medical director for A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit group based in Dorchester, Mass., will become deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in the next two weeks, department spokeswoman Christina Pearson said yesterday.
..."A Woman's Concern is persuaded that the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness," the group's Web site says.
Wait—I know I'm quoting a lot (thanks, reporter Christopher Lee), but it gets even better/worse.
Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, will advise Secretary Mike Leavitt on matters such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. He will oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons."
So a guy who believes that birth control is "demeaning to women" is now in charge of $283 million in family-planning grants designed to provide access to birth control.
This move is so boneheaded, it's telling. Do you think Bush was even aware of it? (Lord knows, he was grateful for birth control in his wild days.) There's no political benefit to this; kissing up to the Christianists is not the thing to do at the moment, and why pointlessly piss off the Dems?
No, this feels like Cheney or some other right-winger who just doesn't give a damn about the political ramifications and wants to stick it to...um...women. Basically. With this and other moves—pushing for the Bolton appointment, for example—Bush isn't exactly signaling that he wants to work constructively with the new Congressional majority.
