Death by Nit-Picking

If someone put your résumé under a microscope, what would they find? A slight embellishment? An honest mistake? An outright lie?

Not so long ago, candidates for public office, Cabinet-level appointees and applicants for sensitive positions were the only ones who had to worry about what exhaustive and rigorous scrutiny might reveal. But now that Washington's toxic political culture has seeped into every agency, office and branch of government, almost anyone in a policy-making position is at the mercy of those with the means and motive to meticulously examine personal and professional records.

Consider the case of Dr. Cristina Beato, a Bush administration nominee for assistant secretary of health at the Health and Human Services Department. Beato, who formerly served as a principal deputy assistant secretary, has been in bureaucratic limbo since her July 2003 nomination, consigned to an "acting" role and subject to leaks and newspaper speculation about alleged inconsistencies in her résumé. Pending resolution of the discrepancies, Beato has been denied a Senate confirmation hearing.

By most accounts, Beato is a bright and dedicated physician. Prior to joining HHS, she served on the University of New Mexico School of Medicine faculty and was a university hospital administrator. But there appear to be questions surrounding an aspect of her educational background and possible exaggerations related to her role in various unpaid endeavors. In one such instance, Beato appears to have claimed to be "medical director" of a home for abused children where she volunteered. Such a position did not exist, although she regularly treated children and scheduled other medical staff there.

Since those in a position to know aren't talking, the truth about Beato's résumé remains opaque. Yet there are enough leads here to conclude that this episode is about more than just a puffed-up vita.

As it turns out, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has sent Beato a nine-page list of questions to be answered. Some are résumé-related, but a few have nothing to do with her credentials. These other inquiries are of a different nature-such as how much of Beato's travel involved political events and whether she was involved in the controversial rewriting of an HHS report on inequities in health care for minorities.

These questions are more than just blind stabs in the dark. The reference to the minority health-care report is designed to underscore the Democratic contention that the Bush administration is "politicizing" science. The curiosity about Beato's travel arrangements stems from her road trips proselytizing for the administration's Medicare plan-and possibly from her impolitic appearance at a July 2003 town hall meeting held by Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., just before he announced he would challenge Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, a member of Kennedy's committee.

In baseball parlance, this is referred to as "the game within the game." In this case, Democrats want to derail a nominee whom they find ideologically distasteful, but not so objectionable as to warrant the unpleasant and potentially risky spectacle of opposing a prominent Hispanic woman.

If nothing else, one thing is certain about Beato: Over the course of her career as a polarizing hospital administrator-she was at the center of controversy surrounding hospital policy on restricting undocumented immigrants' access to medical services-and as a Bush political appointee, she has made a habit of stepping on toes. Assuming there are no wholesale fabrications in her record, does that justify a death-by-nitpicking? Before you answer, you may want to consider how your own résumé would hold up.