It would take just 51 of the Senate’s 55 Democrats to confirm Murthy. But that confirmation has not happened. “There is bipartisan opposition, so Sen. Reid hasn’t even tried to bring him to a vote,” says another senior Senate GOP aide.
By the way, Reid, who has never been shy about criticizing Republicans, is not among those publicly blaming the GOP for inaction on Murthy. A Reid spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Now the Murthy standoff has become entangled in the politics of Ebola. Given the confusion that has sometimes reigned at key health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there’s no reason to believe a confirmed surgeon general would have miraculously made the Obama administration’s response more coherent and effective.
Nevertheless, some of the president’s supporters have suggested that opponents of Murthy are somehow responsible for the president’s Ebola problem. “POTUS would not need an Ebola czar if the NRA, Republicans had not blocked his Surgeon General appointee,” the liberal columnist E.J. Dionne tweeted on October 17.
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