Brenda Fitzgerald, Trump appointee to head the Center for Disease Control has abruptly resigned.  In the announcement, the administration cited her reason as “complex financial interests”.  OK, let’s translate that into English…Fitzgerald owns tobacco company stocks and other investments that conflict her with the mission of the CDC.  As we all know, fighting tobacco use and its associated diseases is one of the CDC’s flagship missions.  And, it gets better…Because of her investments, she has conflicted herself out of testifying before Congress.  Interesting strategy – “I’m so conflicted in my job that I can’t testify as to what I’m doing in my job.”  Anyhoo, she finally caved and has resigned rather than divest as required.  What better person to fight tobacco use than someone invested in tobacco, right?

Here’s the good part.  She bought the tobacco company stock…wait for it…AFTER she was appointed head of CDC and had toured the agency’s tobacco research lab.  That’s rich.