We must insist on investigations on the abuse of power crimes by Bush Admin if those do not set a pattern and precedent for future power-greedy Executive Administrations.

62 comments and nobody opened the DIGG ????

Her database/timeline is here (though, as she says, it’s not sortable like Propublica’s).

Alas, although CNN, Politico.com and other national news organizations have covered Conyers’ opposition to Gupta, they’ve failed to raise the public profile of Dr. Herbert Smitherman, the assistant dean at the WSU School of Medicine who is Conyers’ on-record pick as the surgeon general.

Smitherman, a Cincinnati native who has spent his career in Detroit, says Conyers contacted him immediately after Obama’s election, met with him, and said he would like to recommend him as surgeon general.

Smitherman does fit the Conyers profile of a surgeon general committed to helping those who don’t have access to health care.

The co-author of “Taking Care of the Uninsured: A Path to Reform,” Smitherman has degrees in engineering, medicine and public health and a medical practice providing care to the urban poor.

When he was named a 2003 Michiganian of the Year by The News, the headline read: “Sick, poor and think no one cares? Here’s the man who does.”

here’s a bit i got in my email from john conyers a little bit ago:

An apparent trial balloon has been floated to fill the post of Surgeon General in the name of Sanjay Gupta. He is a health commentator for CNN who dispenses medical advice with a breezy style appropriately suited to the brief two-minute segments of television. However, the TV Doctor has been criticized by many for his close ties to the pharmaceutical and health care industries and for not disclosing the sources of his speaking fees which command up to $50,000 per appearance. Morevoer, his strong criticisms of reform beg the question whether his cozy relationships with the health care industry would compromise his ability to lead the U.S. Public Health Service and serve as a vocal advocate for change.

it was a shame that the dem leadership made conyers take impeachment off the table. i hope we don’t let them make conyers take single payer off the table too.