Word: derwinski
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...some mysterious reason, the veterans who suffer from this cancer were predominantly sailors who were stationed off the Viet Nam shore and who had relatively little exposure to the defoliant. Even though the CDC could find no link between Agent Orange and increased cancer, Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward Derwinski immediately authorized compensation for about 1,800 Viet Nam veterans who have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. They will receive monthly payments...
...Derwinski ought to tell us whether he knew about his associates' backgrounds. If he says he didn't, he ought to explain how he remained ignorant in the face of abundant evidence. Otherwise, we must know why he didn't denounce these people and seek to distance himself from them...
...Derwinski can't give satisfactory answers, he should be disqualified from service in Bush's cabinet. Even if he isn't anti-Semitic, an inability to explain his silence would signify that he condones others' anti-Semitism. This is almost as reprehensible...
CRITICS have suggested that Derwinski is so staunchly anti-communist that he willingly ignores anti-Semitic and fascist, as well as racist, tendencies in other anti-communists. Such a practice, if continued in the Veterans Affairs Department, could leave World War II veterans wondering whose side he really takes...
...hasn't already, Bush should reconsider and confront Derwinski privately before the Senate confirmation hearings. If the nominee responds with hems and haws and, as seems likely, can give no good reason for why he ignored his colleagues' pasts, Bush will have a moral obligation to dump Derwinski...