Senate Shuts Down: Letter To Reid On Health Care From Former Surgeon General Causes Security Scare

WASHINGTON — An unstamped letter from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop turned into a security scare Wednesday as U.S. Capitol Police closed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office for about 45 minutes.

Police officials declined to provide any specifics about who sent the letter, and Reid's office referred all questions to Capitol Police, but the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call said the letter came from Koop.

Koop confirmed to Roll Call that the letter was legitimate. He told the newspaper the letter asked that health care legislation include a provision to ensure doctors and medical students would not be forced to perform abortions.

"I wasn't aware that sending a hand-delivered letter was an offense," he said.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police, said officers were called at about 2 p.m. concerning a suspicious letter.

"The staff did not recognize it and was not aware of how it arrived," she said. "We ran some routine tests and found nothing hazardous."

Koop is one of the nation's best-known former surgeons general, serving from 1982-1989.

Comments

[Maezeppa]

05:22 PM on 11/05/2009

Koop's raising a straw man. People who don't want to perform abortions find other areas of specializi­ation.

[alysheba 3]

05:19 PM on 11/05/2009

Koop, as a female I will say, keep our opinion out of a woman's body!

[janeycat]

04:35 PM on 11/05/2009

It's getting to be that time of day !!!!! HOPO is getting slow to load and rolling all over the place....

this are getting nasty out there.....­.. Koop should just sit back and let the people that he helped during his term have the help with health care that is deserved..

[cuzkate]

08:07 AM on 11/05/2009

If a letter is "hand delivered" doesn't that mean it is a "personal" message?

[cripes]

07:35 AM on 11/05/2009

It's kinda like persuading and or seeking special privilege .I say back off Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Let the Senate do it's job,,,we the people have been waiting for this a long long time. Do not slow this slow process down,,,ple­ase.You may appeal it at a later date.

[EbonBear]

06:34 AM on 11/05/2009

I'm inclined to give Reid the benefit of the doubt on this one. Given the vitriolic healthcare debate and the anthrax letters a few years back, one can't be too careful.

[Guitar63]

11:24 AM on 11/05/2009

Yeah especially with the amount of domestic terrorists who would kill to stop health care.

[BobSF94117]

02:00 AM on 11/05/2009

You would think that a Surgeon General, former or otherwise, would be above this sort of thing.

There's no need for including such a clause in the health care bill. Koop knows that.

[Beachchick]

04:25 AM on 11/05/2009

Well, he is in his nineties -- that's all I will say.

[nexxtep54]

12:14 AM on 11/05/2009

What next ? Malvo escapes and goes on another sniping spree?

[firewmn]

11:12 PM on 11/04/2009

a surgeon general who doesn't understand national security in a post 9/11 society... things that make you go hmmmm..

[Andman0121]

11:01 PM on 11/04/2009

The right wing fringe nutjobs strike again. Did I mention they act like babies by resorting to this immature stunt? Hm.

[Ventura Co California]

11:11 PM on 11/04/2009

Proof please.

[anothermba]

02:09 AM on 11/05/2009

Your asking for proof is proof itself. It's as though, someone says the sun rises every morning in the east and you ask, proof please.
Grow up please?

[thomashusted]

10:50 PM on 11/04/2009

GOD THEY ARE SO PARANOID IT IS SICKENING!­! THE CANCER THAT IS DESTROYING THIS COUNTRY IS WITHIN, NO OUTSIDE ENEMY OR TERRORIST IS GOING TO DESTROY THE US, AS IT IS ALL HAPPENING FROM WITHIN WHICH IS THE CASE OF MOST GREAT EMPIRES WHEN THEY FALL.

[vinnieboiblue]

10:26 PM on 11/04/2009

I have never ever heard of doctors or med interns being forced into performing an abortion. I f you are a doctor whose specialty is a woman's reproducti­ve system, an you are against abortions, you are in the wrong field. Frankly I don't like abortions, but my view is pointless since I am not married. If you are intimate with a woman who is not your wife , you don't have a say in it less you are married to her an intend to support the fetus. But for the potential father, who is married to the woman , then he has a say.

[TXfemmom]

10:52 PM on 11/04/2009

This is just propaganda from Koop. My ex daughter-i­n-law's mother is rabidly anti-abort­ion, that is until her daughter-i­n-law had a fetus with a severe congenital anomaly and died in utero late in the second trimester She was right on the edge with the third trimester so they waited to see if she would go into labor spontaneou­sly, but she did not and her blood pressure spiked seriously, and they were lucky they could get her in to see a doctor who performed late term abortions and she could be delivered safely. Her doctor admitted to her that since he didn't do abortions he could have done some serious damage by not being able to do it correctly. When I was told the story in front of this woman, all I said was that she was lucky to have been able to access a doctor who hadn't been scared into stopping doing them or hadn't been shot by some crazed anti-abort­ionist. She took a big gulp and my ex daughter-i­n-law spoke up and said that she was fortunate to be able to access someone brave enough to have the experience­.

They all are like that till they need someone and then the story is different.

[Viper]

12:07 AM on 11/05/2009

Since most doctors are self employed..­. they are not generally forced to render services they dont believe in.



regards

[bascombe]

08:53 PM on 11/04/2009

totally made up. anthrax is so 9/11. it is, however, believable that this ploy would be employed to stop any possible progress. I guess the dems are pulling out all the stops in their efforts to thwart any progressiv­e aspects of the healthcare bill. I hope the (R)emocrat­s are watching the election results...

photo

There will be much number-cru­nching tomorrow, but preliminar­y numbers (at least in Virginia) show that GOP turnout remained the same as last year, but Democratic turnout collapsed. This is a base problem, and this is what Democrats better take from tonight:

1. If you abandon Democratic principles in a bid for unnecessar­y "bipartisa­nship", you will lose votes.

2. If you water down reform in favor of Blue Dogs and their corporate benefactor­s, you will lose votes.

3. If you forget why you were elected -- health care, financial services, energy policy and immigratio­n reform -- you will lose votes.

Tonight proved conclusive­ly that we're not going to turn out just because you have a (D) next to your name, or because Obama tells us. We'll turn out if we feel it's worth our time and effort to vote, and we'll work hard to make sure others turn out if you inspire us with bold and decisive action.

The choice is yours. Give us a reason to vote for you, or we sit home. You aren't going to make up the margins with conservati­ve voters.

http://www­.dailykos.­com/storyo­nly/2009/1­1/4/800316­/-Tonights­-big-lesso­n

[satanlite]

10:01 PM on 11/04/2009

Well put. Democrats are setting themselves up for an epic fail and it's their own da mnf ault.

[nylibgrrl]

01:38 AM on 11/05/2009

On the one hand, I agree with you. On the other hand, even though the Dems aren't getting the job done, do you really think it's helping anything to sit back and let the Reps take things back? Do we really want to descend into that hell again? Sad that it comes down to a choice of the lesser of 2 evils.

[faith]

08:29 PM on 11/04/2009

Koop's letter was given to a staffer who placed it in Reid's mail. Why didn't the staffer note hand delivered from Dr. Koop? Reid is a wimp and anything to stop business for the day is fine with him.

[LeeCalif]

07:48 PM on 11/04/2009

Koop is Anti-Choic­e. He probably wants to exclude the right to contracept­ion and the option of abortion in any healthcare legislatio­n.

Talk about out-of-tou­ch. Koop said it could have been cleared up rite away....

Well, in order to clear it up, staffers would have had to open an unscreened letter. Something that has been shown to be fa tal to others. How callous of him.