In today's Washington Post, Mike Gerson quite rightly lambasts the "Coburn Seven" -- seven Senate Republicans who are all but blocking expanded funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Unfortunately, what Gerson ignores is the GOP's long history of failure and ignorance on the HIV/AIDS front. This sad history dates to the very founding of the contemporary conservative movement. It was Ronald Reagan, the revered Godfather, who remained silent as tens of thousands of Americans died and a pandemic was spread to more than 100 countries around the globe. Even as Reagan did nothing to combat AIDS, his surrogates in the extreme right opined that the disease was a divinely-inspired retaliation on liberalism. It was Pat Buchanan, Reagan's White House communications director, who called AIDS "nature's revenge on gay men." Such sentiments proliferated as the power of the GOP's religious right-wing coalesced in the 1990s. Former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, for instance, famously called for those infected with HIV/AIDS to be "isolated from the general population" in 1992. He stood by the statement in his 2008 presidential campaign.

When historians sit down to assess the modern conservative movement a generation or two from now, among the most severe tarnishes on the GOP's legacy will be Guantanamo and record deficits. There also will be the string of painfully ignorant policies the party has held on HIV/AIDS. To his credit, George W. Bush has probably done more than any conservative politician of his generation to reverse this tragic legacy -- more, perhaps, than any liberal politician, too. PEPFAR has provided life-sustaining anti-AIDS drugs to 1.4 million patients in the countries hardest hit by the disease. It may be the most favorably remembered foreign policy initiative of Bush's entire tenure. And in his January State of the Union address, the President proposed a long-overdue doubling of the effort.

It looked as though the GOP had finally found its moorings on combating a disease that, in a number of African countries, now affects more than 1 in 5 adults. But a small GOP minority once again appears poised to force the United States to take a backseat in the fight. As Gerson says, it will come at a price paid in lives. Unfortunately, it won't be the first time.

In December 2006, Jeremiah S. Johnson, 25, began serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Rozdilna, Ukraine, a town near the border with Moldova. When he started, he was HIV negative. In January of this year, he had a midservice medical exam in Kiev and agreed to an HIV test. It came back positive. The Peace Corps told him to pack his bags and return to the United States.

Johnson says the Peace Corps director for Ukraine told him he had to go home because Ukraine doesn't allow HIV-positive foreigners to work there. (If so, this isn't unique. As blogger Andrew Sullivan has pointed out repeatedly, the United States has its own fair share of restrictions on HIV-positive immigrants and tourists.)

Back in Washington, Johnson had an end-of-service medical exam and received written notification that he was being "medically separated" from the Peace Corps. He contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the organization sent a demand letter to the Peace Corps saying that it is violating the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability. (The State Department, by the way, changed its policies just this February to permit HIV-positive Americans, on a case-by-case basis, to work in the Foreign Service.)

Johnson doesn't have any physical symptoms of HIV. He and the ACLU say the Peace Corps did not assess him to determine if he could continue serving with reasonable accommodations. Additionally, his requests to be assigned to another country were denied.

What do you all think? A few questions come to mind:

• How easy would it be for Johnson to receive medical monitoring of his condition in a poor country (granted, the medical infrastructure in some Peace Corps countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, is probably stronger than in, say, Burkina Faso and Guinea)?
• What if living in an underdeveloped country aggravated his condition -- would there be liability issues?
• Does how he contracted HIV -- for example, if he was injecting recreational drugs -- make a difference (the manner in which he became HIV positive hasn't been disclosed)?

For more on controversies about the Peace Corps, check out "Think Again: Peace Corps" and some of the reactions the piece prompted.

TARIQ MAHMOOD/AFP/Getty Images

A riddle:

• It's a sign of manhood, but it's not a mustache.
• It's another name for safety, but, no, it's not a helmet.

These are the first two lines of a four-line riddle that's part of a media contest in India that aims to get men talking about sex. Launched in time for World AIDS Day on December 1, the campaign hopes the riddle is intriguing enough that it actually gets men to talk with their friends about topics that can be rather awkward to discuss. 

Many HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns simply tell people to talk about sexual health, but this one actually stimulates people to do so. Additionally, to be eligible to win a prize, people have to call in and actually say the one-word answer to the riddle—no text-messaging the answer allowed! Prizes, such as mobile phones with free minutes, continue the theme of promoting talking.

The contest, sponsored by the BBC World Service Trust, targets men in four southern Indian states that have higher HIV rates. Why men? Research shows that if you can get men to talk about sex and condoms, they're more likely to be consistent condom users. (Did I just give away the answer to the riddle?)

SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images

Soaring HIV/AIDS infection rates and sexual violence have forced African nations to get creative with condoms. You've got Pronto condoms, which can be put on in less than one second, before "the mood is halfway out the window." And then there's the anti-rape condom, blogged about here at Passport, which has "razor-sharp teeth [that] fasten on the attacker's penis if he attempts penetration."

Now, in Ethiopia, where HIV/AIDS infection rates are above 2 percent, a U.S. charity has developed a coffee-flavored condom. DKT International came up with the prophylactic — which supposedly tastes like a macchiato — after receiving complaints about the smell and taste of traditional latex condoms. Despite criticism from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, in September more than 300,000 of the condoms were sold at 10 cents a piece.

The condoms have also tapped into Ethiopian nationalism, as coffee was supposedly invented there. As one university student put it, "It is about time to use an Ethiopian flavor for beautiful Ethiopian girls."

DKT has developed similar products for other parts of the world. In China, they offer condoms that smell and taste like sweetcorn. In Indonesia, they offer a condom that smells like the durian fruit (which, incidentally, absolutely stinks, and is probably the last thing anyone would want to smell before business time).

What's next? Pilsner-flavored condoms in the Czech Republic? Plantain in the tropics? But hey, if it gets more people to have safe sex, why not?

Many Passport readers have written in questioning an assertion made in my post from yesterday that Che Guevara "assisted in the persecution of homosexuals and AIDS victims."

Some of the comments I received were rude: "Either sloppy or lazy," one reader wrote. But, as you might expect from Passport readers, a good many more were constructive: "I have some trouble believing that a person who died in 1967 could have been persecuting victims of a disease whose existence was unknown before the early 1980s," one reader questioned. "In a future post, could you elaborate on this point?" another reader requested.

Sure thing. It's not my contention that Che magically came back from the dead to persecute the victims of a disease which proliferated a decade and a half after his death. I wrote, very carefully, that Che "assisted" in the persecution of AIDS victims. And here's what I mean: The labor camp system Che founded, most notably Guanahacabibes, was the predecessor to that which confined AIDS victims — and, incidentally, a whole host of other folks. Che's successors were "assisted" by his vision, if you can call it that, and the infrastructure he developed. Peruvian writer and FP contributor Alvaro Vargas Llosa explains:

This camp was the precursor to the eventual systematic confinement, starting in 1965 in the province of Camagüey, of dissidents, homosexuals, AIDS victims, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Afro-Cuban priests, and other such scum, under the banner of Unidades Militares de Ayuda a la Producción, or Military Units to Help Production. Herded into buses and trucks, the 'unfit' would be transported at gunpoint into concentration camps organized on the Guanahacabibes mold. Some would never return; others would be raped, beaten, or mutilated; and most would be traumatized for life...."

Thanks to all those who offered thoughtful and constructive comments.

Photo: National Security Archive

One of the oddest cultural trends of our time is the Cult of Che Guevara. I was just down in Peru, where street vendors proudly peddle Chinese-made tapestries and t-shirts bearing Che's image to U.S. college students. Hollywood—most notably Robert Redford—has glamorized Che on screen. And in more than one European hamlet will you find a "Che Guevara Bar," inevitably attracting hipsters with the same, sad tapestries, fake Cuban cigars, and cheap rum.

Today, the Cult of Che hit a new low, when a 3-inch lock of his beard and other items went up for sale at a Dallas auction house. The starting bid? $100,000. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez is rumored to be among the potential interested bidders. The seller is Gustavo Villoldo, a retired CIA operative of Cuban heritage who was involved in Che's capture and was present when Che was buried. Villoldo says he cut the lock of hair because, "I wanted proof that I had completed my mission." His motive for selling it now appears to be profit. (This month marks the 40th anniversary of Che's death.)

MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images

It's disappointing to see Che glorified in this way. The man was a Marxist-Leninist of the worst kind: He presided over the Cuban Revolution's first firing squads; he assisted in the persecution of homosexuals [see note below]; he imprisoned dissidents. Che preached a dangerous breed of martyrdom and hatred reminiscent of the most radical jihadists of today's Middle East. You may see some familiar themes in this, one of Che's choicest lines:

Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine. This is what our soldiers must become...."

Today, we seem intent on remembering Che as a liberator in the Bolivarian vein, a freedom fighter. He was not. As Paul Berman has elegantly documented, Che inspired many middle-class Latin Americans to take up arms in insurgent campaigns that did nothing more than set the cause of Latin American democracy back decades. That a tiny lock of his hair can sell in Texas (of all places) for six figures is a sad comment indeed on just how severely his legacy has been distorted.

Editor's Note: This post was changed by the editor to avoid any confusion. It originally said that Che "assisted in the persecution of homosexuals and AIDS victims." Many readers asked about the original language. Mike explains here.

Not all archbishops are as enlightened as Desmond Tutu. Here's Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, head of the Catholic church in Mozambique, engaging in the kind of reckless lunacy that does not dignify comment:

I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the [HIV] virus on purpose. They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."

He also claimed some anti-retroviral drugs contain the HIV virus.

Kasmauski/National Geographic

Five years ago, Botswana was an HIV/AIDS basket case. It had the highest incidence of the disease in the world. Almost 40 percent of its adult population was infected. Average life expectancy had fallen below 40 years. Botswana was battling against "extinction."

In response, the government, with help from international agencies, embarked upon a campaign to contain the spread of the virus. The results are now beginning to show, and they suggest that Africa's troubles aren't always insurmountable.

Botswana has reduced the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child to below 4 percent through vigilant testing programs followed by drug treatments for mothers who are infected. Thirty-four percent of Botwana's pregnant women—around 14,000 people—are HIV-positive, and the chances of passing on HIV to a baby is between 30 and 35 percent when there's no intervention. In other words, Botswana's effective response has saved thousands of babies from contracting the virus every year. Botswana is now within the range of the United States and Europe, where less than 2 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers have the virus.

Botswana is also looking up in terms of other indicators. The adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has dropped to around 24 percent (it's still high, but significantly better than five years ago), and life expectancy has increased 10 years, to over 50. Obviously, there's still a long way to go. But it just goes to show that smart interventions can make an enormous difference in a very short time.

LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images

I know it's the man's 89th birthday, and he did lead the fight against the crimes of apartheid, but I can't resist pointing out that the halo around former South African President Nelson Mandela ignores his shoddy record on many aspects of governance, and especially HIV/AIDS.

A recent article (free registration required) in the Lancet by Dr. Paul Zeitz, head of the Global AIDS Alliance, lays out the damning history. Although then-Vice President Thabo Mbeki (for years, an AIDS denialist) deserves most of the direct blame for South Africa's 1990s AIDS disaster, it was Mandela who was ultimately in charge at the time. In 1996, his government spent 20 percent of its annual AIDS budget on "a contract for a theatre company to produce a show with questionable public-health messages," according to Zeitz. Following that error in judgment, Mbeki pushed Virodene, an AIDS medicine produced in Africa, through the government's approval process. Virodene was later deemed to be "unfit for human consumption."

When Mandela turned over the reigns to Mbeki in 1999, 11.7 percent of South Africa's adults had HIV/AIDS. Mandela has since expressed his regret over his government's failure to grapple with this problem, and that's welcome. His own son even died of AIDS in 2005, and the elder Mandela has become a fervent advocate for AIDS causes. So what's the issue? Well, as noted in this morning's Brief, Mandela is setting himself up, along with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, as one of the world's wise men. Backed by Richard Branson's millions, Mandela's "Elders" will rain down rhetorical thunderbolts from their Olympean heights in order to highlight the world's ignored causes. But let's not forget that when he had real power to do something, it was Mandela himself who did the ignoring.

Those hoping for a miracle need only stop by their local magic shop and look somewhere between the magic coins and the trick-card deck.

The Ghanaian "prophet" Obiri Yeboah, head of a Pentecostal church in Uganda, was caught red-handed by Ugandan police with a magic device he had used to dupe his congregation into believing they were experiencing miracles.

It turns out that "The Electric Touch" is not a miracle at all, but is actually intended for budding magicians, who can use it to administer small electric shocks to their unsuspecting volunteers. (Check out a video of the device in action here.)

In a country where the average income is $280, Yeboah is said to have collected large sums of money from devout followers who had faith in these miracle performances. His church is part of the growing "miracle church" phenomenon in the turbulent east African country, where some preachers dangerously claim that they can cure HIV/AIDS through special healing powers. 

When last year's UNAIDS report came out, India appeared to have overtaken South Africa as the country with the greatest number of HIV/AIDS cases—an incredible 5.7 million. But in new data released Friday, UNAIDS has more than halved that figure, to just 2.5 million Indians living with the virus.

AFP

The sharp revision has to do with a larger population sample and new methodology for data. Earlier estimates had tested blood from small samples of pregnant women and high-risk groups like prostitutes, and then extrapolated out to the general population. That method is widely accepted, but clearly problematic in determining nationwide infection levels. The new numbers put India behind South Africa, which has at least 5.5 million people living with HIV, and Nigeria, with 2.9 million.

The lower estimate is obviously great news for India. But there's a risk that Indian health officials, long accused of being in denial about the scale of the problem, might take these new results and use them as evidence that India's problem is confined to specific areas and high-risk populations. That would be a huge mistake—2.5 million infections is still nothing to sniff at, and studies have shown that the virus spreads rapidly once it gains a foothold in the general population.

So, what should Indian health officials do with these revised statistics? My advice: Breathe a sigh of relief, and then get back to work so that last year's overestimate never becomes a reality.

The president of Gambia can cure AIDS, but just on Thursdays, the only day when his healing powers work. The cure includes applying a green sludge to the skin of the patient, sprinkling a mystery liquid, having the patient swig a brown broth, and topping it all off with a banana snack. Whirling about the patient and uttering verses from the Koran are also part of the treatment.

President Yahya Jammeh says this treatment, with its seven secret herbs, can cure AIDS "with absolute certainty" if patients meet two requirements: 1) abstaining from alcohol, tea, coffee, sex, and theft during the multiweek course of treatment, and 2) ceasing to take antiviral medications.

Oh, the president also claims he can cure asthma and diabetes.

Speaking seriously, though, this "cure" for AIDS highlights the misinformation that surrounds the disease in many countries. In Africa, many aren't aware that condoms protect against HIV infection. Even if they are told, they also face anti-condom messages: Condoms are a conspiracy by whites to lower African birthrates; condoms are tainted with HIV to decrease the African population. On top of it all, traditional healers, tribal leaders, and the Catholic Church warn against using condoms. What is one to believe?

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The meeting of the world's eight most powerful industrialized nations (if you don't count China) has come to an end, and the global development community isn't too happy about the outcome. At issue is the G8's pledge to give $60 billion to fight HIV/AIDS and other heath crises. It appears to be little more than Enron-style accounting.

At least half of the $60 billion figure, for instance, comes from the $30 billion U.S. President George W. Bush had already pledged last week to combat AIDS over the next five years. And, unlike the Bush administration, the G8 isn't specifying a time period during which it will deliver the aid. The development advocacy organization Oxfam had this to say:

The headlines sound impressive but ultimately mean precious little. Instead of delivering what they promised the G8 has tried to get the biggest possible headline number out of the smallest possible aid increase.... Oxfam's calculations, based on the assumption that the money will be delivered over 5 years, show that by 2010 overall aid will only have increased by $23bn."

That's well shy of the $50 billion the G8 had pledged in Gleneagles, Scotland, way back in 2005.

GEORGES GOBET/AFP

Democracy has proven tough enough for many African nations—poor, riddled with corruption, and bereft of functioning institutions as they are—to achieve. Now we can add one more inhibiting factor to the list: HIV/AIDS. Not only does AIDS leave voter rolls bloated with the names of people who have died, a recent study of six southern African countries found, but the disease robs political parties of their most able campaigners and deprives constituencies of their MPs. A BBC article summarizing the study reports:

In Zambia for example, in the first 20 years from 1964 to 1984 only 6% of by-elections were held as a result of death. But in the next 10 years, 60% of by-elections were because MPs had died. In Malawi, the speaker admitted that 28 deaths of MPs were Aids related.

The study, which was conducted by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, points out that these vacancies sometimes stay open for a year, leaving parts of the population without a voice in government. And the unanticipated economic burden of special by-elections can be just as damaging—one by-election costs Zambia more than US$200,000—since the resources need to be reallocated from other parts of the national budget. Moreover, it's hard to mobilize apathetic voters during by-elections, so smaller parties with fewer resources end up losing out to the ruling party.

Most disturbingly, though, the study finds that the stigma attached to AIDS makes it extraordinarily difficult to get good data from political elites. How can you fix a problem if you can't measure it? Reporting these figures and calculating these costs is a vital first step towards greater openness and public disclosure about the disease. If African democracy is to avoid becoming the next victim of the AIDS pandemic, the conspiracy of silence among the continent's leaders will have to end.

MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty

Intravenous drug use represents the single largest cause of HIV transmission in China, accounting for 44.3 percent of infections. But people infected with HIV through sexual transmission are the fastest growing group. Sexual transmission accounts for 43.6 percent of total HIV/AIDS cases, but almost half the new infections. Discussing both of these causes of HIV/AIDS has traditionally been taboo in China. However, the government has quietly embarked up on a series of efforts designed to tackle the disease. A recent report published by The Lancet tracks just how far China's efforts have come. Some notable achievements:

• Needle exchange programs have been instituted in China’s second 5-year Action Plan to Control AIDS (2006-2010). There were 729 exchange sites at the end of 2006, up from 93 at the start of the year.
• Methadone maintenance therapy has been incorporated into China’s AIDS strategy. After a successful pilot program in 2004, plans are in place to open 1,500 new methadone maintenance treatment clinics for 300,000 heroin users by 2008.
• An official program to promote safe sexual practices among commercial sex workers has been in place since 1998. Between 1998 and 2001, a study found the rate of condom use  increased by 13 percent to 68 percent. The prevalence of gonorrhea dropped from 26 percent to 4 percent, and the prevalence of chlamydia was reduced by 15 percent to 26 percent.
• Free HIV testing has been made available in over 2,300 counties in 3,037 sites, covering all provinces. This is up from 365 counties in 15 provinces in 2002.

In addition, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have made special efforts to be seen publicly shaking hands and meeting with AIDS patients, helping to reduce the stigma and misinformation surrounding AIDS in China. Recently, too, the Chinese government finally allowed activist Gao Yaojie to visit the United States to accept an award for her role in exposing China’s AIDS epidemic after denying her request repeatedly before. Of course, in a country where there are still 650,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, there’s still a long way to go. The upside, though, is that there's now a better trajectory than the 10 million cases predicted for 2010 by the United Nations just a couple of years ago.

TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP

Papua New Guinea, a small group of islands east of Indonesia, is home to some of the most isolated communities on the planet. Its dense jungles and impassable mountains, however, have not been able to shield its people from one of the outside world's worst scourges: HIV. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 1 million people, more than one-fifth of all Papua New Guineans, may be infected with the AIDS virus by 2015.

The epidemic is already exacerbating the inevitable clashes between traditional and modern in the tiny country. AIDS deaths are often attributed to witchcraft and  followed by brutal retribution against those deemed responsible (usually women). The government is trying to devise a comprehensive approach to the disease, but it will have to contend with deep-grained beliefs, like this matter-of-fact justification by a farmer who killed his neighbors:

We ran after them and we chopped their heads off with an axe and a bush knife. I felt sorry for them but they were witches, they deserved to die. If they were still alive they could hurt people with their magic.

PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty

For at least the third time, the Chinese government has blocked Gao Yaojie—a Chinese doctor who has played a critical role in drawing attention to China's HIV/AIDS crisis—from leaving the country to accept an award from Vital Voices, a U.S.-based advocacy group supported by Hillary Clinton. Gao was prevented by police from leaving her house, causing her to miss her flight to Beijing (where she was planning to apply for her visa).

Gao Yaojie was one of the first people to expose the "blood scandal" in Henan province, in which local authorities knowingly allowed blood contaminated with HIV to spread throughout Henan's blood supply, which has created around 100,000 orphans. In the 1990s, local officials set up clinics and began paying peasants $5 for blood donations to meet the massive shortage of blood in local hospitals. But because donors were suffering from anemia from giving away too much blood, the collectors switched to taking only plasma, then pooling the blood of different types together, and re-injecting the remaining blood into the donors—a sure-fire way to spread diseases quickly.

Authorities have tried to cover up the scandal by arresting AIDS activists, closing down orphanages, and trying desperately to prevent the media from getting wind of it. Thanks to people like Gao, though, they haven't succeeded entirely.

(Hat tip: China Shakes the World by James Kynge)

SPENCER PLATT/Getty Images

It's already been another tough week for Pfizer, the world's largest drug company. In the face of expiring drug patents that could cost the company $14 billion in revenues this year, CEO Jeffrey Kindler announced today that 10,000 jobs would be cut across several countries including the United States, France, Germany and Japan. In addition to these problems, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the leading American AIDS group in the United States, is suing Pfizer:

Pfizer's direct to consumer marketing of Viagra as a drug to enhance sexual performance is primarily aimed at men who don’t necessarily suffer from a clinical diagnosis of erectile dysfunction, and we believe it is not only irresponsible, but also illegal, especially in light of the drug’s known use as part of a 'circuit party cocktail' of drugs that is fueling the spread of STDs and HIV," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Then there's the failure of Torcetrapib, a drug developed by Pfizer to treat heart disease that was ultimately abandoned in December due to fundamental safety issues. In the same month, Pfizer saw its debt rating downgraded—making the company the last major drug producer to lose its (Moody's) AAA rating. The expiring patents are yet another blow to add to the list of troubles faced not only by Pfizer, but by other large pharmaceutical firms as well. It will be interesting to see how these companies will fare as more patents run their course and the competition from generic drug makers—particularly in developing countries—intensifies.

Now that we've got your attention, we'd like to direct you to this week's Seven Questions with Jill Youse, the founder and executive director of the International Breast Milk Project.

Last year, the 29-year-old Youse had a freezer full of excess breast milk from nursing her newborn daughter. She thought it would be a waste to pour it down the drain. And so she did a little research, and found that if every baby in the world were exclusively breastfed for the first two months of life, 1.3 million lives would be saved every year. She looked into donating her milk to an orphan clinic in Durban, South Africa, rounded up some donations from companies that helped her with the shipping and the processing, and now, nine months later, there are hundreds of women around the U.S. who want to donate, too. And it won't cost them a thing. Take a look at the interview here, and learn how you can help.    

A side note: Youse has only ever left the U.S. once in her entire life, and it was for a two-week trip more than a decade ago. So, she's never been to Africa, and has never visited the orphans who've benefited from her hard work.  As she said during the interview, "I've heard that there are 2-for-1 specials on airfares to Africa through February, but I'm not sure if I can make it." So if there's anyone out there who wants to help (Angelina, I'm talking to you!), give us a holler at passportblog@ceip.org.

That's a headline you don't see every day, but then again, there's no lack of irony in the way Democratics are handling their new budget power on Capital Hill. Is the incoming Senate appropriations czar, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, really vowing to do away with earmarks? Give me a break. In the last 15 years, a fraction of his 47-year Senate career, Byrd has secured some $3 billion in earmarks for his home state. They don't call him the "king of pork" because he likes ham sandwiches.

Unless something changes, bridges and research labs in West Virginia won't be the only victims of the democrats impending reign. Also at risk is the $1 billion in planned 2007 federal funding for the fight against global poverty, AIDS, and malaria.

Rocker-activist Bono was on the Hill last week trying to get assurances from soon-to-be- Majority Leader Harry Reid that the funding would stay in place regardless of how the silly politics of budgeting plays out. Apparently, the meeting did not go so well. Bono had this to say:

I'm alarmed we could not get a commitment from the Democratic leadership to prevent the loss of $1 billion in the continuing resolution to fight AIDS, malaria and extreme poverty.... I don't know who's to blame. Democrats are blaming Republicans, Republicans are blaming Democrats. But the million people who were expecting bed nets don't care who's to blame. They just know that a promise made by the United States to keep their families safe is in danger of being broken next year.

One of the few positive foreign policy legacies of the Bush Administration will be its committment of tens of billions of dollars to the global fight against AIDS and poverty. It's a sad comment on the state of Congress that, under the leadership of the "liberal" democrats, this funding could fall victim to petty politics.