By Dave Andrusko

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop

By now you may have heard that the Capitol Police temporarily shut down the office of Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday “after staffers alerted them to what they thought was a suspicious letter — which in fact came from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop,” according to the Hill. Koop sent the same letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi but without the fanfare.

No doubt neither office was pleased by the letter’s content. The letter is only one typed page in length and its first two paragraphs cut to the heart of Koop’s concerns.

The 93-year-old Koop wrote, “As the former Surgeon General of the United States, two terms, from 1981 to 1989, I am writing to express my deep personal concerns about the direction of the health care reform bills currently being considered by the United States Congress.” Koop then added, “More specifically, I am troubled about the possibility of federal dollar being used to pay for election abortion and Americans being forced to subsidize them.”

(According to the Hill, “Sources say the letter — stampless and with ‘C. Everett Koop’ written in the upper-left corner — appeared in the office’s outgoing box. The postal clerk alerted the office to the letter, and staffers reported it as a suspicious package to the Capitol Police.”)

Koop said that he had not heard from Reid’s office.

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Part Two
Part Three