Article: Koop dispenses bitter pills // Surgeon general confounds critics

WASHINGTON He came to the nation's capital in 1981 as the man the Reagan administration planned to eventually make surgeon general of the United States - an evangelical Christian and devoted conservative who brought with him a reputation as a superb pediatric surgeon, a vitriolic anti-abortionist and an unbending moralist.

Dr. C. Everett Koop was instantly the darling of conservatives and anathema to liberals, some of whom took to calling him "Dr. Kook." With his stern visage, graying beard and piercing eyes, detractors snickered and compared him to Captain Ahab or some ranting Old Testament prophet.

Today, Koop finds himself in a perplexing position - the delight of the left and the ...

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