January 29, 2006

Stewart Simonson: another crony in a key position?

60 Minutes has a report on the Department of Health and Human Services ordering just 100,000 doses of a drug designed to combat the effects of a dirty bomb: "The Worst-Case Scenario". HHS says it's just their first order and there will be more to come. The company that developed the drug was counting on getting a much larger contract and says unless they and other companies get a firmer commitment it might be a while before major production could begin. And, needless to say, that might be too late.

Certainly, we need to subtract from the equation both the company's biases and 60 Minutes' - especially Ed Bradley's - demonstrated biases. However:

...Who made the decision to buy 100,000 doses instead of 10 million? It was Stewart Simonson, the man who oversees Project Bioshield. Simonson is a Republican political appointee who, before running Project Bioshield, was a lawyer for Amtrak. Republicans as well as Democrats have criticized his management of the program.

"Secretary Simonson just appears to be over his head on this particular issue," says Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, who chairs the committee that oversees Project Bioshield.

Davis, who usually supports the administration, is taking the unusual step of calling in this story for Simonson’s removal from Bioshield...

From back in October: Is Stewart Simonson qualified to lead our pandemic response?

There's certainly a chance that he's being unjustly criticized. However, given the Bush administration's history of appointing unqualified joke candidates (Harriet Miers, Julie Myers, Michael Brown, etc.) and given the importance of his job, can we afford to take any chances?

Perhaps it's time for sane Republicans to start thinking about how all this looks and start opposing the Bush administration rather than taking the eventual heat for supporting them.

Posted to Politics at January 29, 2006 08:14 PM

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