Courier Post

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071215/OPINION/712150309/1047

To counteract President Bush's penchant for recess appointments to positions requiring Senate confirmation, Democrats did not recess for the latest holiday weekend. In the past, he has used such times to install people who he knew would not be confirmed, thus bypassing the intent of congressional oversight.

An example is appointing Susan Orr as acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs at Health and Human Services. Orr will control $283 million for federal family planning services for low-income families, difficult to reconcile with her one-time position at the Family Research Council, where she equated contraception with abortion.

Considering contraceptives part of the culture of death, she supported Bush's 2001 proposal to stop requiring federal employees' health insurance coverage for birth control, stating fertility is not a disease. She also has $30 million to continue teaching abstinence-only sex education, which, according to a recent federal report, is ineffective.

Given Bush's position on abortion, it is incomprehensible that he panders to the conservative evangelical agenda against contraceptives which reduce unintended pregnancies. Many of his recess appointments demonstrate such hypocrisy, with ideology trumping science. It is clear we're all better off when Bush is out of Washington, visiting Camp David or Crawford, Texas, although he still manages to do damage from wherever he happens to be.

BETTIE J. REINA  Buena Vista