Allaying the fears of the public on bio terror?

Let's review the facts:

-Tommy says the first Florida anthrax might have come from drinking in a stream. Or maybe the tooth fairy.

-Tommy says he won't threaten the Bayer Cipro patent since we need the profit motive to drive research.

-Two days later, Tommy leans on Bayer with threats regarding patent so Bayer agrees to sell Cipro in large quantities to US Gov't at $.95 instead of $1.75 a dose.

-Two days later, Bayer competitors say they have cheaper alternatives to Cipro with fewer side effects. But Tommy's order for Cipro stands.

Tommy can you can hear me?

Thompson has no health, science or medical background. Rather, he came to Washington to shrink Health and Human Services, selected in large measure because Milwaukee has a working school voucher system and he was Governor of Wisconsin. He has struggled to get in front of this crisis and hopefully now with a couple of weeks of no new bad news (prior to the Leahy letter), maybe he has done that.

This isn't a political point. Imagine if Frederico Pena was still Transportation Secretary. YIKES! But we gotta judge performance on real, not political terms. If Thompson has provided folks with comfort, I'm glad. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

The Bush foreign team couldn't be stronger, and we're lucky to have them. Let's hope they figure our a way to bolster the obvious weak sticks on the domestic side. I don't care if they fire Mineta, as long as airline safety is handled well.