State Sen. Mark Green is a medical doctor who has currently been nominated for the Secretary of the Army, basically because he hired someone to run his gubernatorial campaign that worked on Donald Trump's campaign, and those are apparently the only qualifications that matter to Trump.

Green is also a heartless jerk.

As a doctor, Green's first obligation is to "do no harm." However, Green's tenure as a legislator has shown him repeatedly doing the opposite, introducing or supporting bills to harm immigrants, refugees, Latinos, Muslims and the LGBT community. Unsurprisingly, that racism and homophobia has come back to bite him in the ass now that he's on a national stage, as group after group has denounced his nomination — LGBT groups, Muslims, and veterans who outrank Green. (Even Trump supporter Caitlyn Jenner is opposed.)

This is apparently getting to Green — who is rather notoriously thin-skinned in the face of criticism, according to fellow lawmakers. Not exactly the quality one wants in someone overseeing the Army. Earlier today, Green posted on Facebook how all those mean liberals are simply taking his words out of context, because they hate Christians:

The liberal left has cut and spliced my words about terrorism and ISIS blatantly falsifying what I've said. Let me be very clear, 1) The only people I have ever called evil are murderous terrorists trying to kill Americans. 2) The only people I have ever suggested be crushed are the terrorist enemies of our nation. 3) I have never and will never force my religion on anyone. If God gives Mankind a choice, which I believe, who am I to force my faith on anyone? 4) I believe that every American has a right to defend their country regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religion. It's the radical left that won't allow the latter. 5) I have never considered myself a judge of anyone, but I have been a protector of everyone in this nation.

On the one hand, it is refreshing to see Green acknowledge that gender identity is a thing that exists, even if Pith strongly suspects Green himself did not write those words. After all, this is the same man who told the Chattanooga Tea Party last fall that being transgender is "a disease":

If you poll the psychiatrists, they’re going to tell you that transgender is a disease. It is a part of the DSM-6, I think it is, the book of diagnostic psychological procedures or diagnoses. It’s very interesting to see what’s happening in government, or in our nation. But you ask about how we fix it ― how we get the toothpaste back in the tube. I gotta tell you ― it’s going to start with me being the salt and the light to the people around me. I mean, if you really want to bring this back to who’s at fault, we got to look a little bit inwardly. We’ve tolerated immorality. And we’re reflecting light.

This was from a video Green or his staff posted to his campaign YouTube page, mind you. They were proud of this. But late last week more audio turned up from a Green appearance last summer on talk radio. It's even more damning — and if you listen to the audio, Green's words are not cut and spliced:

“There are 300,000 rapes in the United States every year,” Green said. “Three hundred thousand women who are sexually assaulted by predators. We know this. It’s documented. It’s factual. To think that some young guy isn’t going to take advantage of the system where we’re going to allow guys to go into the bathroom ― the women’s bathroom ― to think that it’s not going to happen is just ridiculous. ... "And as far as the religious argument goes, and this applies to the issue of Syrian refugees as well. There’s a big fuss about whether or not that we should sue the federal government over having to take refugees from Syria into the State of Tennessee, I believe we should sue the federal government in that case because Romans 13 is pretty doggone clear, this is the passage where it tells people to submit to the authorities — meaning, basically if you’re in the government, you should do what the government tells you to do. You know, don’t speed, all that kind of stuff. Obey the laws is basically what the passage says. But what it goes on to say is that because the government exists for two purposes. "The government exists to honor those people who live honorably, who do good things — to reward people who behave well and to crush evil. So that means as a state senator, my responsibility very clearly in Romans 13 is to create an environment where people who do right are rewarded and the people who do wrong are crushed. Evil is crushed. "So I’m going to protect women in their bathrooms, and I’m going to protect our state against potential infiltration from the Syrian ISIS people in the refugee program. And whoever wants to stand up and take me on that, I’m ready to fight." [emphasis ours]

But you don't even have to look to last year to find Green being awful about this. On April 9 — after he was nominated to be Secretary of the Army — Green published an op-ed doubling down on his anti-sanctuary city stance:

Regarding legal immigration and programs such as the federal refugee resettlement program, the priority must be the security of our citizens. It is neither racist, demonstrating a lack of compassion nor a religious test to address the influx of tens of thousands of individuals coming from war-torn areas where radical Islamic terror is the driving force. ... The arguments of prejudice, inconvenience and civil rights fall flat but are fueled by those in the politically correct crowd. ... The premise of sanctuary cities and jurisdictions is lawless. It places the protection of noncitizens over the protection of law-abiding citizens. Further, the premise of extreme vetting is based on the same measures implemented in U.S. airports for the purpose of security. Let’s not take a manufactured moral high ground at the price of ignoring the security of our citizens and applying the laws of our nation unequally.

Look, I'm biased by knowing the facts, as my sister actually has a job vetting refugees for the Department of Homeland Security (a job that she now cannot actually do, thanks to Trump). Refugees go through a longer security vetting process than anyone Trump has hired in the White House. It is a minimum of two years before any potential refugee is granted that status and a visa to entire the country. Terrorists, they are not.

In fact, I'd bet any given former refugee in my neighborhood — of whom there are many — received more vetting than Green will for his new job. Green's opposition to "sanctuary cities" — of which there is not one in Tennessee — is simply hateful political posturing. Hateful political posturing that got him the new job interview, and hateful political posturing that could prevent him from sealing the deal. He made his bed, and now he's going to have to lie in it.

But there are other reasons the Senate should reject Green to run the Army (and not just because my military friends tell me the only way someone who seemed set on a military career would leave rifle company command for med school is if their leadership skills were terrible and they were nudged, either gently or not so gently, to do other things). Green is not just heartless towards people with different skin colors and sexual orientations, he's heartless to prospective patients.

A source passed along a memo Green issued back when he was running an emergency room, a memo that later surfaced as part of a lawsuit over payments from the company. In the memo Green encourages mid-level physicians to spend as little as five minutes with patients and sets quotas for treatment.

"You are expected to see at least three patients per hour, so cherry-pick the charts!" Green writes.

Would Jesus cherry-pick the charts? Pith cannot say. But Green won't prescribe the morning-after pill to women because of his religious beliefs, he said last year during testimony on the anti-gay counseling bill (which he obviously supported). And Green's caviler attitude towards patients was evident again on the Senate floor Monday night, during discussion over a bill introduced by Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris that would close a loophole in a law preventing people from being prosecuted for drugs when seeking medical help for an overdose.

As currently written, the law only provides immunity for a person’s first overdose but subsequent ones could lead to arrest. The bill has some bipartisan support in the Senate and House, it was also supported by the Tennessee Medical Association, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.

In his comments, Green implied that users were likely to fake overdoses when busted by the police to get out of an arrest and that doctors wouldn’t be able to tell the users were faking.

“As an emergency physician I just want to say, though, if you get a patient into the emergency department and you’re treating for symptomatology, oftentimes in true overdoses, you cannot confirm with laboratory findings whether or not the patient ever took anything or not. Many of the drugs are not testable in the system. Some are and some aren’t. Some show up, some don’t. The ability to actually prove that it’s actually a true overdose is almost impossible,” Green said, somewhat inaccurately. (Urine screens will not show all drugs but a full lab panel can.) "Creating a situation where you provide a way out, I don’t think that decreases the number of overdoses. In fact, I’m concerned it might increase the use, because now there’s a get out of jail free card.”

A few minutes later, Green stated, “You do not have to be an addict to overdose on drugs. Contrary to what has been said, anyone can overdose on drugs. ... And just because you have overdosed, it does not mean you are an addict.”

Technically, this is true. But in practice, this is farcical. It is opioid addicts who are overdosing. And they are not overdoing to get out of being arrested for possession, they are overdosing because they have an illness. Not a moral failing, but an illness. An illness doctors like Green should be treating, not spouting half-truths about. And you know what population has increasing numbers of opioid addictions and subsequent overdoses? Soldiers and veterans, many with PTSD.

Green voted against the bill (as did Sen. Joey Hensley, another doctor). The bill died with 13 votes against it and 10 votes for it, with three senators present and not voting, and five other senators just not voting. (Two senators were absent.)

The bill is still alive in the House and could make a last-minute zombie return in the Senate.