The Federal Drug Administration might not be doing enough to ensure the safety of the nation's drugs, and its inaction on regulating certain medical devises may have led to a number of deaths, but that's not stopping the Bush administration from lavishing praise on it. Marc Kaufman gets the A2 story in Monday's issue of The Washington Post:

The Bush administration and some of its critics squared off yesterday over whether the Food and Drug Administration is doing an adequate job overseeing drug safety, and whether the agency needs major reforms.

In a preview of the debate to come, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said the agency is doing a "spectacular" job and should "continue to do the job they do."

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, shot back that the FDA's "record on protecting us from harmful prescription drugs is a catastrophic failure."

"Early action on bipartisan FDA reforms is possible in Congress, and I hope that the White House and congressional leadership will not stand in the way," Kennedy said.

The agency is clearly not doing its job properly, and to the Bush administration that is "spectacular." Just as in the case of Donald Rumsfeld, it's clear that this administration prefers gross negligence to actual efficacy, and that's really scary. I do hope Congress steps in on the FDA issue, because if it doesn't, many innocent people will die prematurely.