# Third in a series: Can Bush pick 'em or what? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105 "2007-06-07T12:48:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/1 "2007-06-07T12:48:26Z")
In a previous thread [there is a list too discouraging to recreate](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=408976) of our fine President’s eye-popping nominees for various posts. And the tradition continues. I present to you: [President Bush’s nominee for Surgeon General.](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3251663&page=1) > [@](#): > > President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., wrote a paper in 1991 that purported to make the medical argument that homosexuality is unnatural and unhealthy. Doctors who reviewed the paper derided it as prioritizing political ideology over science, and Democratic aides on Capitol Hill say the paper will make his confirmation hearings problematic. Let us not discuss the pipefittings. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/2 "2007-06-07T13:08:20Z")
Let us smack Bush upside the head with a pipefitting. Wow. Holsinger does make one good point – gay sex is a really bad way to make babies. Other than that, the guy is a fucking moron. I really hope the Dems of Congress show some balls this time around. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/3 "2007-06-07T13:21:09Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Holsinger does make one good point – gay sex is a really bad way to make babies. [/QUOTE] Are those people hanging out in gay and lesbian bars looking for ways of making babies? Or are they looking for something else? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/4 "2007-06-07T13:37:56Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] Holsinger does make one good point – gay sex is a really bad way to make babies. [/QUOTE] They’re just not trying hard enough. If only someone from the Family Research Council could show them the correct way to make a baby! -Joe ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/5 "2007-06-07T13:39:46Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Are those people hanging out in gay and lesbian bars looking for ways of making babies? [/QUOTE] Apparently Holsinger thinks so. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/6 "2007-06-07T13:49:45Z")
Is it just me, or are these anti-gay people way too obsessed with buttsex? ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/7 "2007-06-07T14:05:05Z")
Is anyone surprised by this? Given Bush’s past record of nominees, including his Family Planning Czar, I figure this is pretty much what I expected. Let’s face it. The odds of him nominating anyone who was pro-gay rights, or who even showed much common sense on the subject were pretty slim. I wish it were otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/8 "2007-06-07T14:12:29Z")
[QUOTE=Telperien] Is it just me, or are these anti-gay people way too obsessed with buttsex? [/QUOTE] Well, you know how when you’re starving and there’s someone sitting across the room eating a sandwich? And you’re so desperately hungry and they have a bit of mayo dangling from their lower lip? And you are just so hungry and there you are staring and fixedly at that titillating rope of mayo? Sometimes it gets so bad that you just have to go over there, grab the guy, and then bend him over and fuck his ass right there on the bench. Ya know what I mean? -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/9 "2007-06-07T14:16:17Z")
[QUOTE=Merijeek] Well, you know how when you’re starving and there’s someone sitting across the room eating a sandwich? And you’re so desperately hungry and they have a bit of mayo dangling from their lower lip? And you are just so hungry and there you are staring and fixedly at that titillating rope of mayo? Sometimes it gets so bad that you just have to go over there, grab the guy, and then bend him over and fuck his ass right there on the bench. Ya know what I mean? -Joe [/QUOTE] Now that I’ve watched more porn, yes, I do, although I don’t think I like where the mayo fits in. ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/10 "2007-06-07T14:27:42Z")
Now I want a sandwich. At least … I _think_ I want a sandwich. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/11 "2007-06-07T14:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=Siege] Is anyone surprised by this? Given Bush’s past record of nominees, including his Family Planning Czar, I figure this is pretty much what I expected. Let’s face it. The odds of him nominating anyone who was pro-gay rights, or who even showed much common sense on the subject were pretty slim. I wish it were otherwise. [/QUOTE] Yes, I agree. Bush as been a serial twat. That’s why this is the third in a series. ETA: And by ‘twat’ I am not talking about which pipe fits where. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/12 "2007-06-07T14:37:55Z")
[QUOTE=Merijeek] Well, you know how when you’re starving and there’s someone sitting across the room eating a sandwich? And you’re so desperately hungry and they have a bit of mayo dangling from their lower lip? And you are just so hungry and there you are staring and fixedly at that titillating rope of mayo? Sometimes it gets so bad that you just have to go over there, grab the guy, and then bend him over and fuck his ass right there on the bench. [/QUOTE] I hate when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/13 "2007-06-07T15:05:09Z")
As I’ve said many times, there are LOTS and LOTS of competent, smart, talented conservatives running around in Washington. I’ve met some of them. For some reason, however, this administration seems to have shied away from these people like the plague. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/14 "2007-06-07T15:09:34Z")
[QUOTE=Telperien] Is it just me, or are these anti-gay people way too obsessed with buttsex? [/QUOTE] Anti-gay people way too obsessed in general. Come on people, maximize the resources. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/15 "2007-06-07T15:09:43Z")
It’s not enough to simply not be pro-gay, it seems. No, anyone working high up in the administration must be anti-gay to the point of irrationality. I bet I could get a job leading a federal department by showing up 30 minutes late to the interview and complaining about those damn gays clogging up the freeway with their buttsex. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/16 "2007-06-07T15:10:30Z")
Holsinger was chancellor at my alma mater while I was in med school. I met him a few times, but I never had any classes with him or anything like that, so I had no idea of the extent of his nutjobbery. I have to say, for once, that at least he’s qualified for the position. Usually being a Bush loyalist and a right-wing nutjob is plenty to get a plush position with Bushco; maybe the fact that he’s qualified is just a coincidence. Blind squirrel, and all that. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/17 "2007-06-07T15:12:24Z")
[QUOTE=Siege] Is anyone surprised by this? Given Bush’s past record of nominees, including his Family Planning Czar, I figure this is pretty much what I expected. Let’s face it. The odds of him nominating anyone who was pro-gay rights, or who even showed much common sense on the subject were pretty slim. I wish it were otherwise. [/QUOTE] He might have chosen a Surgeon General who simply had long experience in health care and no recorded position at all on teh gay. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/18 "2007-06-07T16:44:33Z")
The gay thing, while absurd, isn’t the [worst thing](http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2007/06/do_not_insert_k.html) about his record: > [@](#): > > But what, you ask, of his medical career? A quick Nexis search reveals that he was the medical director at the VA under George H. W. Bush. That, as you might recall, was the period during which the VA was in dreadful shape. Curiously, almost all the articles I turned up were about problems of one sort or another. There’s this: > > > [@](#): > > > > "The Government says six men who died at a large veterans’ hospital in suburban Chicago were the victims of inadequate care. (..) > > > > After an extensive review of 15 deaths between June 1989 and March 1990, the agency acknowledged blame in six, said Dr. James Holsinger Jr., the agency’s chief medical officer." > > And this, from the Washington Post, 3/1/1993: > > > [@](#): > > > > "Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown, reacting to charges that VA officials ignored a decade of sexual harassment by top officials at the Atlanta veterans hospital, yesterday ordered major changes in the way his department handles harassment complaints and directed all 259,549 VA employees to attend four hours of sexual harassment lectures. > > > > Brown’s directives were announced two hours after Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) condemned VA administrators for remaining silent over the Atlanta situation. (…) > > > > Mikulski aimed her most critical remarks at James W. Holsinger Jr., the VA’s undersecretary for health and the official who oversees the hospital system. “I really think he should leave the VA,” she said." > > And, from the Washington Post, 9/20/1993, after Holsinger had been replaced as VA medical director: > > > [@](#): > > > > “Capitol Hill was so outraged that James W. Holsinger Jr., the top doctor at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was about to land a $ 160,000-a-year job as a VA “distinguished physician” that the department abolished all such positions.” > > All in all, not very inspiring. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/19 "2007-06-07T17:04:15Z")
Heckuva job, um…Holly? Holsingery? Holsingy? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105/20 "2007-06-07T17:22:54Z")
[QUOTE=Apos] As I’ve said many times, there are LOTS and LOTS of competent, smart, talented conservatives running around in Washington. I’ve met some of them. For some reason, however, this administration seems to have shied away from these people like the plague. [/QUOTE] Of course, there is the remote possibility that the competent people make it very clear during the search process that they do not want their names tarnished by associations with this outfit. _(Nah. The good ones never get interviewed.)_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/third-in-a-series-can-bush-pick-em-or-what/407105.md?page=2)