I hope Obama does not pick RFK, Jr as head of EPA or Interior

[alarimer]

This is a really, really bad idea. He is an anti-vaccine crank and also temperamentally unsuited to the job, given his tendency to call his oponents Nazis. This would be politicizing science, on a par with many of Bush's policies. What we need is someone who knows the science and is a good administrator. RFK Jr is a lawyer; he knows nothing about science. There are plenty of people with science degrees or with a lot of experience on the issues (whether it is EPA or Interior) that would do a much better job. This is not about throwing a bone to progessives. The progressive, environmentalist agenda is not served by appointing anti-science cranks anywhere near these agencies. I can't remember who headed these agencies under Clinton but I am sure they would be a better choice than RFK Jr.

I am a scientist and believe that an Obama Administration is vastly superior to a McCain administration in terms of science and environmental policies. Still, those policies need to be based on sound science and cannot be used a political tool to keep progressives happy. Too many progressives (just like too much of the American population in general) are scientifically illiterate and we could do a lot better.


Here is a science blogger talking about this:

...So what? You say. The Head of the EPA doesn't have anything to do with vaccines. True enough. But RFK, Jr. has demonstrated himself on this issue not only to be prone to dubious science, but to have become a true believer in one of the most outrageous and dangerous forms of pseudoscience out there: antivaccinationism, or vaccine rejectionism. If you're trying to build an administration ostensibly devoted to using the best science as the basis for public policy, and the EPA is one agency where that is incredibly important, you do not want someone who is so prone to pseudoscience and promoting misinformation running that agency. Moreover, RFK, Jr's tendency to play fast and loose with science goes beyond mercury in vaccines and into the very area where he claims expertise, the environment, where he blames Katrina on global warming, for instance (not even Al Gore does that). Indeed, his assaults on fact and science are legendary, right up to describing the small Cuyahoga River fire (which lasted only 30 minutes and was never caught on film) as "exploding in colossal infernos." Apparently, any "science" is good to him, as long as it appears to support his agenda. Add to that his "not in my backyard" hypocrisy in opposing a proposal to build wind power turbines off of Martha's Vineyard, and it's hard for me to comprehend how Obama could consider him for a post even for a moment.

Indeed, his autism crankery aside, let's not forget also that RFK, Jr. is utterly unqualified to run a major government agency, his environmentalist activities notwithstanding. The EPA is a sprawling bureaucracy charged with converting environmental law into concrete regulations and then enforcing those regulations. It takes a strong managerial skill set to run such an organization. Is there any evidence that RFK, Jr. has the managerial chops to run a bureaucracy as large and complex as the EPA? None that I can see. Certainly he doesn't have the temperament for such a task. He's always seeing dark conspiracies everywhere and is prone to fly off the handle and conflate policy disagreements with evil in the form of Adolf Hitler. (The Hitler Zombie has feasted well and long on RFK, Jr.'s brain!) I wonder if he'll start seeing dark conspiracies against him whenever things don't go his way as Head of the EPA or Secretary of the Interior. I think you know the answer to that one. After all, he's been quoted thusly about reporters who don't report what he thinks they should report, "They should all drink poison Kool Aid and restore integrity to their profession." Indeed, the only good thing about RFK, Jr. in the EPA would be the amusement and schadenfreude that his likely hyperbolic attacks on his former allies the first time policy differences lead them to sue the EPA over an environmental issue would provide. That's the only good thing, though.

Finally, not only would letting RFK, Jr. anywhere near Interior or the EPA allow him to insinuate his pseudoscience into government policy, RFK, Jr. would be a profound embarrassment to the embryonic Obama Administration right from the start. His temperament, his tendency towards conspiracy-mongering and calling his opponents "Nazis" or "traitors," and his credulity towards pseudoscience that allows him to cast himself as the Great Defender Of The Underdog would provide endless ammunition for Republicans to use against the Obama Administration. Worse, in most cases Obama's opponents would be right: RFK, Jr. could be expected to politicize science every bit as much as the Bush Administration was accused of doing, just from a different political viewpoint. If the Bush Administration's politicizing of science was so bad, why should it be any more acceptable from Democrats?

It shouldn't.

I voted for Obama in part because, after eight years of the Bush Administration, I hoped that Obama would be pro-science where the Republicans politicized beyond recognition science that conflicts with their ideology. I still have that hope, but it's being shaken by these increasingly plausible reports that RFK, Jr. is indeed being seriously considered for either a Cabinet post or to lead the EPA. While it's understandable that Democrats might want some push-back after eight years out of the Executive Branch, the way to stop the politicization of science is not to replace Republican ideologues and cranks with Democrat ideologues and cranks. That's exactly what putting the antivaccine crank RFK, Jr. anywhere near a government position would be. All Obama would succeed in doing is to make antivaccinationists very, very happy, antivaccinationists like Ginger Taylor.

more:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/11/say_it_aint_so_barack_say_you_aint_serio.php