The outrage — outrage! — that the Bush administration would put a muzzle on Surgeon General Richard Carmona is fine, I guess. Carmona chose to keep his mouth shut rather than face getting fired from his cushy job doing what I don’t know — I’d really never heard much about him, so I guess the muzzling was pretty complete.
Who could blame him for assuming that if he crossed the administration that he’d be canned. After all, look at what happened to a previous Surgeon General who made remarks the boss didn’t like. Jocelyn Elders was dumped by President Bill Clinton right quick when she said at a UN conference that teaching children about masturbation might be a way to prevent riskier sexual behavior and slow the spread of AIDS. Now that’s what I call muzzled.
I can’t find a clip of Elders saying the words that got her canned in context, but portions of it are in this piece assembled by someone who must have really loved Rush Limbaugh years ago at — of all places — Tualatin Valley Community Access.