Someone in Obama’s name sentenced AIDS victims to die.

I WANT A NAME.

(Via Instapundit) I am not exaggerating. We are dealing with the real world now, and in the real world you do not cavalierly and abruptly disrupt groups providing vitally critical medical assistance without ill result:

During Obama’s transition, Dr. Mark Dybul was initially asked to stay on as the coordinator of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for several months until a replacement could be found and confirmed. Because Dybul was the main architect of the program and one of its guiding visionaries, few were surprised by the offer. With Ambassador Randall Tobias, Dybul organized the most staggeringly successful foreign assistance effort since the Marshall Plan — eventually helping support lifesaving AIDS therapy for more than 2 million people.

[snip]

By encouraging Dybul to stay until his successor was in place, the Obama administration displayed a generous spirit, as well as a practical concern for continuity in a vital program.

Then, the day after the inauguration, Dybul received a call asking him to submit his resignation and to leave by the end of the day. There was no chance to reassure demoralized staffers, or PEPFAR teams abroad, or the confused health ministers of other nations. The only people who seemed pleased were a few blogging extremists, one declaring, “Dybul Out: Thank you, Hillary!!!”[*]

As in most political hit-and-run attacks, the perpetrator was not anxious to take credit. It seems unlikely to be Hillary Clinton herself — Dybul’s ultimate boss at the State Department — who had not even been confirmed when Dybul received his call. But someone at State or the White House determined that sacrificing Dybul would appease a few vocal, liberal interest groups. One high-ranking Obama official admitted that the decision was “political.” Yet the AIDS coordinator is not a typical political job, distributed as spoils, like some deputy assistant position at the Commerce Department. It involves directing a massive emergency operation to provide lifesaving drugs, through complex logistics, to some of the most distant places on Earth. And now that operation may be months without effective leadership — undermining morale, complicating interagency cooperation, delaying new prevention initiatives and postponing budget decisions.

Translation of that last paragraph: firing Dr. Dybul will make PEPFAR less effective. That means that people who might have been helped in time will not be; that means that people will end up dead much sooner than they might have been. But that was less important to somebody in the Obama administration than scoring domestic political points. Or going after a gay man who had the brazen effrontery to assist a Republican President in the task of saving innocent African lives.

I want the name of the partisan who decided that; and I want the name of the fool who recommended the partisan to President Obama; and I want to know why President Obama thought it a good idea to hire either.

Hey, if it was a justified firing, then there’s no reason not to be transparent, is there?

Moe Lane

PS: You can acquaint yourself with Pepfar here. And, to head off the Left-apologists who think that you’re as bigoted as they are, here’s an interview where Dr. Dybul discusses why it’s important to stress a comprehensive approach to AIDS prevention. Remember that when you hear somebody “earnestly” complaining about his willingness to use condoms to fight the spread of the disease, particularly if you’ve never seen them post here before; seven will get you five that they’re actually incensed that he dared agree that abstinence awareness might be effective as well.

Yes, I do think that the people on the Left who are trying that particular trick are vile. What I haven’t decided yet is whether they’re more racist, or homophobic. Oh, well, embrace the healing power of “and.”

[*]Gerson didn’t include the link, but I thought that it’d be a shame not to show you what a racist who delights in the deaths of conveniently far-away foreigners looks like. Although I may be unfair, here: she might simply just not see them as being really real. You know. Like she is, or her friends. But probably not me, or you.

Crossposted at RedState.