Surgeon general nominee downplays paper he wrote

President Bush's surgeon general nominee on Thursday defended a paper he wrote about 15 years ago calling homosexuality unhealthy and unnatural, telling senators, "The paper does not represent where I am today."

James Holsinger downplayed the paper, which has become perhaps the biggest obstacle to his approval. "It represented a specific time, in a specific context, for a specific purpose," he told the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. "I can only say I have a deep, deep appreciation of all people, regardless of background or sexual orientation."

Holsinger explained the paper was meant to be a literature review of health issues specific to homosexuality for theologians, pastors, biblical scholars and others with Christian emphasis. Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said the paper misrepresented the science available at the time, but said he wanted to move on.

Holsinger's appearance came three days after former Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified that the Bush administration scrubbed his speeches to remove any mention of controversial issues such as stem cell research. If asked to hold back sound science, Holsinger said he would try to negotiate with administration officials, but if that didn't work, "I would resign."

He elaborated later: "I think that you must balance those. I think we cannot have unfettered science without moral and ethical implications being looked at, all of those kinds of things."

Holsinger said he believed the president's policy of allowing federal funding on a fixed number of embryonic stem cell lines was working, and he did not know enough about the situation to speculate whether research would be improved if the limit was lifted. Bush opposes some research because it destroys embryos. Holsinger said he wanted to focus on obesity, smoking and developing rapid response teams in the Public Health Service Corps.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., re-ignited the hostile relationship she had with Holsinger when he served for three years beginning in 1990 as the chief medical officer at the Veterans Affairs Department and she was chairwoman of the Veterans Affairs-Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee.

Mikulski accused Holsinger of downplaying women's health needs and not doing enough to counter a culture of sexual harassment at veterans hospitals.

"I believe I am a deeply compassionate person and I care greatly about women's health," Holsinger said.

A date for the committee's vote on Holsinger has not been scheduled.