Pete Domenici: “I rise today to support Dr. David Satcher to be Surgeon General of the United States and Assistant Secretary for Health…”

“I rise today to support Dr. David Satcher to be Surgeon General of the United States and Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services. Let me first say I base this on many things, but I would like to tell the Senate right up front that we have a wonderful doctor who is a United States Senator, Dr. Bill Frist from the State of Tennessee. While I am not saying that he knows everything about medicine, he knows a lot more than I do. We have talked at length about this nominee and he not only knows him, but he knows of him in ways that I probably would not discern from just reading the same things that my friend Senator Frist has read. Because he reads into some of these past performances and past professorships and various things that Dr. Satcher has done--he reads much more into them than I can because he knows what they are all about. Suffice it to say that no Senator should rely on another Senator as the only source of why he votes one way or another, but I would like to say right up front that I started with at least a presumption on my part that I would find out a little more and read what I could on my own in addition to receiving some excellent advice. On my own, beyond that, I have looked at his career and, frankly, I think the President has picked a very, very distinguished American doctor. He has been a rather reputable scholar, a rather renowned teacher, and obviously a very good physician.”