One year ago, Wisconsin’s then-Governor Tommy Thompson anxiously anticipated the coming presidential election and the possible Cabinet appointment a Bush victory might carry with it. Six months ago, at the helm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Thompson took his welfare-reform expertise to the nation’s capital.
Today, in a nation marred by terrorist atrocities, Thompson now finds himself doing what’s never been done before: protecting a nation from heretofore unprecedented attacks against the American people.
Amid fears of anthrax infection and other biochemical threats, the small-town Wisconsin lawyer-turned-welfare-reform crusader is now forced to take charge of a microbiologic war few people seriously considered plausible before Sept. 11.
Michael Crowley, associate editor for the left-wing publication The New Republic, criticized statements made Oct. 16 by the HHS Secretary.
“Thompson has emerged as the nation’s chief spokesman on the germ panic,” Crowley wrote. “And though he has sought to be a calming influence, his reassurances often ring so hollow as to have the opposite effect.”
Authorities concur that anthrax now poses a threat to 281 million people, a reality that will stretch American public health resources to the limit.
“Thompson has been assuring the media that America has plenty of vaccines and antibiotics to respond to any germ attack,” Crowley said. “On Oct. 4 he boasted that the United States has an ‘ample supply’ of antibiotics for anthrax — enough to treat two million people for 60 days.”
But criticism has come from all sides.
Christopher Caldwell, senior editor for the right-wing newsletter The Weekly Standard, also had harsh words for Thompson’s ability to handle this national bio-terrorism crisis.
“Most obviously out of his depth was the Health and Human Services secretary, Tommy Thompson, whose resignation had been overdue days before,” Caldwell said in an Oct. 29 editorial. “This is a man who speculated that Florida photo editor Robert Stevens had contracted the anthrax that killed him while fishing in a trout stream.”
The statement suggesting the initial case of anthrax was naturally contracted lent itself to ridicule, Caldwell said.
Thompson later rescinded, but insisted he was speaking on the advice of experts.
According to Crowley, the Bush administration may never have considered that Thompson would lead a department that is now “the domestic equivalent of the Pentagon.”
HHS’s long list of responsibilities includes operating the Center for Disease Control, keeping ample national stockpiles of antibiotics and telling doctors how to respond in the wake of threats.
However, it is widely recognized that the level of national public health preparedness, or lack thereof, is inherited from previous administrations and the world previous to the attacks.
Thompson is not the only administration official who has come under fire.
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was lambasted after claiming the absolute safety of national mail while Postmaster General John Potter was simultaneously urging Americans to wash their hands after dealing with mail.
But even the strictest critics of Thompson and the Bush administration concur that it is easy for people outside the decision-making realm to criticize leaders trying to fight a war with no historical precedent and no visible enemy.
Daren Schmit, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party and former press secretary for Thompson, was quick to come to his defense.
“What people need to remember is that there is no road map here,” Schmit said. “This is a new situation that has not been dealt with before. As far as someone who can learn on their feet, Tommy Thompson is the best.”
