President Clinton's nominee for surgeon general faced tough questions Wed-nes-day about his leadership of a Nashville teen-pregnancy prevention program and his alleged knowledge of a government study in which poor black men in Alabama were left untreated for syphilis.
In another development, the Senate's Democratic leader suggested if Republican presidential candidates play politics with the nomination of Dr. Henry Foster, Democrats may take revenge."We may start objecting to moving to other legislation. We may need to make it very clear that cooperation is a two-way street," said Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the minority leader.
At Foster's hearing, Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee Chairwoman Nancy Landon Kassebaum, who is considered a possible Republican supporter of Foster, continued to express concern Wednesday about the surgeon general nominee's leadership and improvement of his "I Have a Future" program.
But freshman Republican Sen. Bill Frist, a fellow Tennessean and doctor, lent a helping hand to the nominee he has not committed to supporting - indicating he may be ready to vote for him. Asking Foster a rapid-fire series of questions, he allowed Foster room to clarify a number of issues - from the syphilis experiment to his performance of hysterectomies on severely retarded women in the early 1970s.
"I'm trying to clarify things," he said later, saying many of his non-doctor colleagues need help understanding the issues.
Kassebaum, R-Kan., wanted to know what Foster had done once an evaluation of the program showed a high dropout rate and low participation in teaching sessions.
Foster said he had done much to fix problems in his program, and, as surgeon general, he would call a national meeting on teen pregnancy, encouraging all similar programs to share resources and brainstorm.
Kassebaum also questioned Foster closely on allegations that he knew about the infamous government Tuskegee experiment - in which men with syphilis were left untreated - in 1969, three years before it ended.
At the time, Foster was an obstetrician in Tuskegee, Ala., where the experiment was taking place. He was also an officer in the local county medical society.