Surgeon general nominee say he's not biased against gays

WASHINGTON — President Bush's nominee for surgeon general insisted Thursday that he harbors no bias against homosexuals in spite of his 1991 writings viewed by some as anti-gay.

Dr. James Holsinger Jr. faced tough questioning at his Senate confirmation hearing over his views on homosexuality and how he would react if he were pressured to put politics ahead of science in his role as the nation's doctor.

"I would resign," Holsinger said emphatically.

Concerns about his independence were spurred by former Surgeon General Richard Carmona's testimony two days earlier that the Bush administration muzzled him on issues such as abstinence education and stem-cell research because of politics.

A vote on the nomination of Holsinger, a Kentucky cardiologist, wasn't expected for several weeks.

At Thursday's hearing, he distanced himself from a paper he wrote 16 years ago that has been attacked by gay-rights organizations and public-health experts as inaccurate and inflammatory. The paper cited data showing elevated rates of disease among gay men, but some medical experts say he completely ignored other data that would have contradicted the paper's point that homosexuality is an abnormal function.

House panel blocks access to gun data

Pro-gun-rights Democrats teamed with House Republicans on Thursday to block local governments and law-enforcement agencies from gaining routine access to gun-purchasing data.

The House Appropriations Committee defeated two attempts by gun-control advocates to strip 4-year-old restrictions on the use of information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tracing gun sales. The votes were a victory for the National Rifle Association and came despite the Democratic takeover of Congress.

Gun-control advocates say the gun-sales data is essential to uncovering dealers who sell guns that disproportionately end up in the hands of criminals.

Gun-rights advocates, led by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., said mayors such as New York's Michael Bloomberg want the data to sue out-of-state gun dealers. Tiahrt, the key sponsor of the restrictions on sharing gun-trace data, also said easing the restrictions could lead to the disclosure of police officers' identities and other details to criminals.

Libby commutation "perplexes" judge

In an unusual expression of frustration, the judge who sentenced former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to 30 months in jail, only to see the sentence commuted by President Bush, said he was "perplexed" by the act of clemency.

In his first public comments on the matter, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton took issue with Bush's statement that the prison sentence ordered for Libby last month was "excessive." Walton defended the sentence, saying that he followed established legal precedents as well as a strict interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines that has been supported by Bush's own administration.

"In light of these considerations ... it is fair to say that the court is somewhat perplexed as to how its sentence could accurately be characterized as 'excessive,' " wrote Walton, a Bush appointee.

"Although it is certainly the president's prerogative to justify the exercise of his constitutional commutation of power in whatever manner he chooses, the court notes that the term of incarceration imposed in this case was determined after a careful consideration of each of the requisite statutory factors."

Seattle Times news services