James W Holsinger

President Bush's candidate for surgeon general, facing an uphill struggle to win confirmation, told the Senate on Thursday that he's committed to science and would resign if pressured to slant his recommendations for ideological reasons. "I would use the science to attempt to educate the policymakers," said Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., a prominent Kentucky physician, medical educator and former government official. "Quite candidly, if I were unable to do that and I was being overridden ...

President Bush's candidate for surgeon general, facing an uphill struggle to win confirmation, told the Senate on Thursday that he's committed to science and would resign if pressured to slant his recommendations for ideological reasons. "I would use the science to attempt to educate the policymakers," said Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., a prominent Kentucky physician, medical educator and former government official. "Quite candidly, if I were unable to do that and I was being overridden ...

Some Gulf War veterans are suffering from "undiagnosable" ailments, but there is no hard evidence of widespread disease linked to Persian Gulf service, federal officials said. A small number of cases "present complex health issues, some of which appear to defy our best efforts to define them," said Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., undersecretary of health in the Veterans Affairs Department.

The Veterans Affairs Department has initiated disciplinary proceedings against two senior medical officials at one of its large hospitals outside Chicago and suspended virtually all surgery there after an inspection raised questions about the deaths of several patients. What prompted the action by VA Secretary Edward J.

Re "Health official claims censorship," July 11 It is distressing yet hardly surprising to hear former surgeons general testify about the politics of sex in Washington. Dr. Richard H. Carmona's remarks powerfully confirm that the Bush administration's support for strict abstinence-only programs is politically motivated and comes at the expense of women's and girls' health.

With former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona's testimony to a House committee about the influence of politics on public health messages, and Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. currently being interviewed for the position, some may be wondering who is this person who places warnings on cigarette packs. -- Who is the surgeon general? "The surgeon general is considered the nation's top public health doctor and top health communicator," says the acting surgeon general, Rear Adm. Kenneth Moritsugu, M.D.

This week, as much of the nation enjoys a light schedule and the House of Representatives is in recess, the Senate will twice open for business and each time quickly close. It will do the same next week. The expected faux sessions will be part of a rare gambit by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to prevent President Bush from making any so-called recess appointments, as presidents sometimes do when a nomination is in trouble in the Senate.

President Bush's nominee for surgeon general ran into intensified opposition Friday, as two leading Democratic presidential candidates joined major gay and lesbian groups in urging his rejection by the Senate. Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., 68, a prominent cardiologist and former state health director in Kentucky, was nominated by Bush last month with a mandate to fight childhood obesity.

President Bush's first surgeon general testified Tuesday that his speeches were censored to match administration political positions and that he was prevented from giving the public accurate scientific information on issues such as stem cell research and teen pregnancy prevention. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard H.

The Rev. Ann Gordon stood in front of her United Methodist congregation last fall and announced that she was now he. Surgery and testosterone had transformed Ann into the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- still as liberal and laid-back as always, but now legally male. Most in the small congregation accepted their pastor's transition; they even threw him a renaming party, complete with birthday cake.