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January 28, 2009 07:19 PM UTC

Netroots get Obama to fire gay man who made Bush's AIDS program succeed

  • 17 Comments
  • by: Another skeptic

Bush’s former speech writer exposes the partisan purge of the guy who has made America’s African AIDS program such a success.

Link is here.

Talk about partisan. Obama can’t stand to continue the program that is considered one of Bush’s greatest contributions.

By encouraging Dybul to stay until his successor was in place, the Obama administration displayed a generous spirit, as well as a practical concern for continuity in a vital program.

Then, the day after the inauguration, Dybul received a call asking him to submit his resignation and to leave by the end of the day. There was no chance to reassure demoralized staffers, or PEPFAR teams abroad, or the confused health ministers of other nations. The only people who seemed pleased were a few blogging extremists, one declaring, “Dybul Out: Thank you, Hillary!!!”

As in most political hit-and-run attacks, the perpetrator was not anxious to take credit. It seems unlikely to be Hillary Clinton herself — Dybul’s ultimate boss at the State Department — who had not even been confirmed when Dybul received his call. But someone at State or the White House determined that sacrificing Dybul would appease a few vocal, liberal interest groups. One high-ranking Obama official admitted that the decision was “political.” Yet the AIDS coordinator is not a typical political job, distributed as spoils, like some deputy assistant position at the Commerce Department. It involves directing a massive emergency operation to provide lifesaving drugs, through complex logistics, to some of the most distant places on Earth. And now that operation may be months without effective leadership — undermining morale, complicating interagency cooperation, delaying new prevention initiatives and postponing budget decisions.

It is difficult to imagine what vision of public service could cause any Obama official to celebrate a victory by sabotaging a good man and a good cause. And it is difficult to conceive what political gain Obama has achieved. This type of captivity to extreme interests is precisely what has discredited Democrats so often in the past. It is a kind of politics with all the “newness” of a purge, all the “freshness” of a mugging.

Do you approve of the firing of Dr. Mark Dybul?

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17 thoughts on “Netroots get Obama to fire gay man who made Bush’s AIDS program succeed”

  1. Soon after I got my first Zenith 90 (CPM OS) computer in the early 80s, I signed on to CompuServe and discovered a thread started by a young man dying from AIDS.

    He kept us updated on his illness and progress, and a couple of docs chimed in with comments.

    It was very sad.

    1. The Rick Warren and Bush HIV/AIDS plan in Africa is a failure.  It was conceived from the “abstinence only” view.  Condoms were forbidden, as was family planning.

      Just because someone is gay does not mean he or she is working for the betterment of humanity.

      From The Age :

      n reality, the funding is even more circumscribed. In 2005, the State Department’s Office of the US Global AIDS Co-ordinator issued a directive that half the HIV prevention funds must be used for non-sexually-related prevention interventions such as blood-safety programs, and at least two-thirds of the remaining funds for HIV prevention be used to promote abstinence-until-marriage and/or faithfulness in marriage. This means that no more than one-sixth of these funds can be used for programs that promote condom use.

      The Rolling Stone:

      Thanks to the president’s foot-dragging, his “emergency plan” took its sweet time getting going. Bush requested only $2 billion for PEPFAR in its first year — a billion less than one would expect. Then, when Congress decided to approve $400 million more than the president asked for, Bush unsuccessfully fought to block the increase. By the time the first relief funds arrived in Africa, nearly a year and a half had passed since the president announced his plan — a costly delay in fighting an epidemic that claims 8,500 lives every day.

            1. that you won’t answer a simple question?

              What evidence do you have that this was ‘Obama’s move’?  

              Sorry, that’s two questions I know.  Don’t want your head to implode (what things do when the vacuous internal space gets to over-bearing).

              1. if not his decision.  Whoever made the decision to ask for Dr. Dybul’s resignation, they, or their boss on up the line, work for the President.  He is where the buck stops, right?

      2. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/in…

        You may not like the former President, but don’t let that blind you to the facts.  The U.S. plan to combat AIDS in Africa has been anything but a failure.

        From the PlusNews site: http://www.plusnews.org/Report…

        “Several 100,000 people in South Africa are alive, thanks to the PEPFAR programme,” said Dr Francois Venter, president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society. “They’ve patched up gaps in provision to groups like illegal immigrants and refugees. I think there’s fairly universal acknowledgement it’s been a successful programme.”

        What is really interesting is that the Obama administration wanted to leave Dr. Dybul to stay on until his replacement was confirmed. But outside organizations apparently worked to have him removed immediately, leaving PEPFAR leaderless.  

        I can’t see how this situation helps AIDS victims in Africa, but politics apparently supersedes human life in the Obama administration.

  2. And who did Bush replace in this program when HE came into office and made his POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS…  Just wondering as I suspect there is more to this than AS is bothering to consider, not that that is any surprise.  Here is one from the 20 pages of comments attached to this OPINION PIECE that I found worthy to share:

    Gerson admits that he doesn’t know WHO is responsible for asking for Dr. Dybul’s resignation and yet the sub-heading asserts that OBAMA himself “sabotaged a doctor who brought AIDS therapy to millions”.

    Gerson ALSO admits that he has no idea WHY the resignation was requested…and yet the on-line headline blares that it’s “The new politics of malice”.

    Gerson doesn’t know who or why Dybul was asked to resign and yet he’s (or his editors) are absolutely fine with declaring that Obama, for no reason other than deep-seated meaness, Obama himself sabotaged this doctor in particular and PEPFAR in general.

    Just like a Republican. Why search out the FACTS when unsubstantiated acccusations and unfounded smears are so much easier?

    1. Here’s an actual link to a news story, not some idiot speechwriter.

      As the Blade reported last week, a number of AIDS and reproductive rights groups have urged Obama to replace Dybul with someone the groups see as more likely to change the Bush administration’s insistence that at least some international AIDS relief funds be linked to abstinence-only programs.

      Among the groups that called on Obama to replace Dybul as AIDS coordinator were the International Women’s Health Coalition and the Sexuality Information & Education Council of the United States, which advocates, among other things, for gay-sensitive sex education programs.

      “Don’t have sex, and you won’t get AIDS.” That’s a brilliant plan.

        1. Whether he personally bought into it or not, he went along with a bad policy.

          And your statements about supporting gay marriage or letting people die of AIDS are hateful lying bullshit.

      2. in a political appointment.  Kind of like firing merit employees because they aren’t right-wing enough.  Oh wait,no it’s not.  

        Here, let me put it in a block for you AS:

        And who did Bush replace in this program when HE came into office and made his POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS?

        See my question is open ended, you can answer it thoughtfully should you want to or be able.  The question I hear you asking is this, if I may paraphrase:

        Blah, blah, blah, Obama, blah, bloggers, blah?

        So which is it? A or A?

      3. Can’t use reliable evidence because he looks for things that fit his worldview rather than what is really true.

        I’ll give you credit when you can find NEWS sources. For the millionth time, an unsourced editorial from a partisan is not news, therefore it is not a legitimate source to support your case.

        This is why you have no credibility.

  3. Yet the AIDS coordinator is not a typical political job, distributed as spoils, like some deputy assistant position at the Commerce Department…

    But an Asia Times article says of Dybul’s predecessor…

    http://www.atimes.com/atimes/F…

    WASHINGTON – US President George W Bush’s “surprise” choice of a former top executive of a major US pharmaceutical company and major Republican contributor as his global AIDS coordinator has drawn expressions of concern and even outrage among Africa and AIDS activists here.

    Bush’s choice of former Eli Lilly & Co boss Randall Tobias was announced on Tuesday at the White House…

    Professor Jeffrey Sachs, head of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and a special advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the AIDS crisis, called the appointment “surreal”. “This is an emergency that requires someone who’s worked in the field and knows it thoroughly. We don’t need someone who raises all sorts of questions about commitment and agenda,” he said.

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