Dr. Foster Deserves His Day in ‘Court’ : Dole may block surgeon general vote by Senate

Bob Dole, the Senate majority leader and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has announced that he will not vote to confirm Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. as U.S. surgeon general, assuming the question ever comes to a floor vote. That’s suddenly a big assumption, because Dole is also hinting that if the Foster nomination clears committee he might refuse to let the full Senate decide on the controversial physician’s fate.

Dole has the power under Senate rules not to schedule a floor vote. Such a move would block the nomination and force President Clinton to begin searching for a new candidate for the nation’s top public health post, presumably one whose professional background--Foster is an obstetrician-gynecologist--would present fewer problems. Smothering the nomination this way would of course boost Dole’s standing among those who are unforgiving toward any doctor who has ever performed abortions, as Foster has. It would also moot the threat by Dole’s currently strongest rival for the GOP nomination, Sen. Phil Gramm, to organize a filibuster to prevent a floor vote on the nomination.

All this may be not-unexpected presidential politics, but it’s important that Americans not lose sight of the central issue. The central issue is not the nomination prospects of the hopefuls from Kansas or Texas but rather Henry Foster’s right--and beyond that the right of the President and of the American people--to have his fitness judged by all 100 members of the Senate, on a recorded vote, as the Constitution intends. To sacrifice that right on the altar of presidential politics may, under Senate rules, be permissible, but it would be neither fair nor responsible.

The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee has scheduled hearings on Foster in two weeks’ time. Dole suggests the nomination may never make it out of the Republican-dominated committee. Whether that view reflects his own vote counting or is aimed at pressuring uncommitted committee Republicans to bury the nomination isn’t clear.

The White House’s handling of the Foster nomination, as we have remarked before, will never be taught in schools of government as a model of skillful political preparation or presentation. The Administration failed to do its homework and failed to brief Foster adequately on how to handle the inevitable abortion questions. The result was that his credibility quickly was damaged, even though he is yet to testify about his background and beliefs. He deserves that right, and the full Senate should have the chance to pass on his fitness, whatever the presidential ambitions of Dole and Gramm.