Brown quizzes nominee over "gay people"

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown turned to a rather unusual line of questioning during the Senate confirmation hearing yesterday of James Holsinger, a former chancellor of the University of Kentucky medical center tapped by President Bush to be the next Surgeon General.

Holsinger has drawn fire because of a paper he wrote 16 years ago declaring that gay sex is unhealthy and unnatural, prompting Brown, a Democrat, to ask:

"There have been reports that over 50 Arabic translators have been fired from the Pentagon simply because they are gay. Given your past statements on homosexuality, what do you see as a greater threat to the health and safety of Americans: untranslated documents and intercepts from al-Qaida or gay people?"

Holsinger, not surprisingly, didn't quite know what to say.

"Well, that's certainly an interesting question that you have posed, senator. I've not had an opportunity to think through, as you might guess, an answer to that question at all. I think I would have grave concern for having the effective translators that we might need in order to be able to provide for the safety for our American people," he said.

Brown said he had asked the question is because "too often this administration has allowed ideology to override qualifications when it comes to critical positions," citing the much criticized handling of Hurricane Katrina by former FEMA head Michael Brown and the failed nomination of Bush counsel Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court.

"I just don’t want to see us go down that road again," he said.