Jim (R-SC) Hearts Hillary (D-NY)

Or at least he admires one of the legislative strategies she used recently.

When Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach's nomination to head the FDA hit the Senate, she (and another Senator) placed a hold on it. She made it clear that the FDA had to quit stalling on the Plan B drug, and either endorse or reject the findings of its experts. The end result was Plan B was approved for over the counter sales, but only to persons eighteen or over.

Jim DeMint (R-SC) saw this and has decided that it was so cool he had to give it a try. He is now talking about trying to put a hold on Dr. Eschenbach's nomination.

Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, will block Dr. von Eschenbach's nomination unless the F.D.A. takes steps to remove the abortion drug RU-486 from the market, said Wesley M. Denton, Mr. DeMint's press secretary.

There is one major difference that should be pointed out to Sen. DeMint. Sen. Clinton (D-NY) was trying to get the FDA to follow it's own medical experts recommendations. Jim is trying to get the FDA to override the recommendations of the FDA experts. Where one Senator was demanding that the FDA quit playing political games with our heath issues, our Senator is demanding that the FDA make decisions based not on the consensus of experts but on his political goals.

Very disappointing, but in the case of Sen. DeMint, not at all unexpected.

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RU486 DeMint