The Subtext
Posted on March 1, 2009 at 5:58 pmTom Humphrey reads between the lines of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s statement congratulating Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on being tapped as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services:
“And, if President Obama decides to create a separate White House position to serve as chief promoter of a national health care system - Health Care Czar, if you will - I, certainly, still might be available.”
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Sebelius, Not Bredesen, Obama’s Choice For HHS
Posted on February 28, 2009 at 6:19 pmThe Associated Press reports:
A White House source says Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is President Barack Obama’s choice for secretary of health and human services.
There had previously been speculation he might choose Gov. Phil Bredesen to fill the post.
Governor Bredesen has issued this statement in response to reports:
“Kathleen Sebelius would be an absolutely first-rate choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services and would be in sync with President Obama’s goals for health care reform.
“We’ve been friends and worked together on various issues for several years now and I think very highly of her. She has an excellent mind, she makes decisions carefully and well, and her obvious empathy for the plight in which so many Americans find themselves will serve them and our country well. She has been a great governor, is well respected by her colleagues, and for my part, I stand ready to help her in any way.”
SEE ALSO:
Ken Whitehouse
R. Neal
Ilissa Gold
Southern Beale
Guerilla Women
So Does Sebelius Have This HHS Thing Wrapped Up?
Posted on February 19, 2009 at 9:52 pmA good bunch of folks seem to think so. I wouldn’t be so sure. The fact remains that the 2010 Senate race in Kansas is one the Democratic Party and Barack Obama would really like to win. And while Obama may have had some trouble with the ethical failings of some of his appointments, Phil Bredesen is not likely to come up dirty in the vetting process.
Yes, Bredesen has a controversial profile in the health care community but that is a policy issue. If Bredesen is clean, the Republicans will throw up just as little resistance as they would for Sebelius. The progressives can whine all they want about TennCare, Obama is gonna pick the person he wants for the job, and the fact is Bredesen has been on both sides of this issue, the public side and the private.
Phil Bredesen has no definable future in electoral politics. Eventually he may want a Senate seat but Alexander isn’t up for six years and Corker (and his money) doesn’t look to be wanting to go anywhere anytime soon. The appeal of Bredesen to Obama over Sebelius is that Bredesen can be focused on the actual job of HHS secretary and not the politics.
Because, while the thrill of getting picked and the chance to tackle an issue can be invigorating, in many cases cabinet positions tend to be less than glamorous. Cabinet secretaries are more often on the downslope of their careers that in there prime. It is an easy place to disappear. Quite simply Sebelius should want to pass on this and Obama should let her.
Getting picked for a cabinet position is a deft thing to maneuver. Just because you haven’t heard much from or about Bredesen in the past few weeks in regards to HHS doesn’t mean he’s not in the mix or lobbying hard for it.
A cabinet position is not something you openly campaign for. You want to be seen, as much as possible, as not campaigning for it while leaving yourself open to the possibility of getting picked. When the progressives attacked him on TennCare he had to make sure his name was clear and that his message was out there.
But just because he has receded into the background does not mean that the jig is up. It may just mean that the real vetting and negotiations are quietly taking place.
Bredesen: Ayo, Obama People, Y’all Watching My Speech?
Posted on February 9, 2009 at 6:25 pmThe Honorable Phil Governor works his job interview for Secretary of Health and Human Services into his state of the state address:
One immediate concern is health care: when people lose their jobs, they often lose their health insurance as well. We know that additional people will qualify for TennCare, and we are planning for that in the budget. We have opened CoverTN up to those who have lost their jobs, and trust that this will help some as well.
These avenues of help are well-meaning but still patchwork, and this recession has truly underlined for me something that I’ve believed for a long time: that we need a national solution for health insurance. Our health care system has become antiquated and unfair, and I deeply hope that a new President and a new Congress can fashion the solution that Tennessee and America deserve.
SEE ALSO: Brian Hornback
Kansas Governor High On The List Of Potentials For HHS
Posted on February 8, 2009 at 12:48 pmThe Honorable Phil Governor is still in contention, however:
Her name had been floated for several Cabinet posts, but she announced in early December that she had removed herself from consideration from a Cabinet job, citing Kansas’ budget problems that needed her attention.
The two-term governor remains popular in her state and comes from a strong political family. Her father, John Gilligan, was the governor of Ohio in the early 1970s. She also advised Obama’s campaign on how to connect with women, especially after Republicans picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as their vice presidential nominee.
Sebelius was in town last week to give a pair of speeches, one on clean energy jobs and the other at the National Education Association. She also met at the Ritz Carlton hotel with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Sebelius’ trip was planned before Daschle bowed out as nominee for HHS secretary as a result of fallout from about $140,000 in back taxes and interest he paid last month.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen also was on Obama’s list to run the nation’s massive health programs. Already, though, some advocacy groups were lining up to oppose the Democratic governor.
He remains under consideration, the senior official said.
SEE ALSO:
Associated Press
Jonathan Singer
Fox News
CNN
Campaign Diaries
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Okay, We Got It, You Want The Job
Posted on February 7, 2009 at 11:56 amGovernor Phil Bredesen on what he would be interested in accomplishing as Secreatary of Health and Human Services if offered the job by President Obama:
“I’m a believer in some form of national or universal health care,” he said, “not operated by the government but underwritten by the government. We don’t do a good job of running things compared to private industry, but we do a good job with things like Social Security, being able to move money around.”
Bredesen said that any new plan shouldn’t be “the sort of super-comprehensive system where anything you want, no matter what, no matter when, is free.”
“I would love to see something which is universal, which provides the basic kind of services you need and, you know, if a union wants to add something to it or an employer wants to add something to it on top of that, that’s fine, but let’s underwrite the basic stuff,” he said.
The Left Battles Back Against Bredesen HHS Buzz
Posted on February 6, 2009 at 8:56 pmThe progressive health care reform community is up in arms tonight over even the remote possibility that Obama is considering our governor as a potential Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The fact that there are now reports that Bredesen and the White House Chief of Staff have traded voicemails haven’t help matters.
Of all the opposition research circulating Friday, one of the favorite nuggets among critics was the fact that BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, a company with major state dealings, donated $150,000 to the renovation of the governor’s mansion.
“A lot of elected officials are in bed with the insurance industry, but Phil Bredesen doesn’t stop there. He let them pay to redecorate his mansion. We can’t think of anyone more wrong for health care reform or more wrong for America,” said Jacki Schechner, spokeswoman for Health Care for America Now.
“This is a guy whose single greatest health care achievement is stripping 200,000 people of health care coverage in Tennessee - a move that was not only bad policy but an unconscionable act.
SEE ALSO:
The Wonk Room offers alternatives
Woodsie shares his thoughts
“Eye Candy” Kumari on the speculation
The Progressive Pulse
Did I Studder?
Posted on at 4:28 pmBredesen spokeswoman, Lydia Lenker, reiterates that Governor Phil Bredesen is not in talks to become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services:
“I can’t keep up with this speculation central (in Washington),” she said. “Nothing is changed and I don’t know where they’re getting this information. We haven’t gotten any phone calls (from White House officials). There are no talks going on.”
Everybody Chill Out, Slow Your Roll, Etc. On Bredesen
Posted on at 1:20 pmWhitehouse tells us what’s what on the Bredesen HHS chatter:
NashvillePost.com has been reluctant to weigh in on the speculation of Bredesen’s future because of conflicting signals from a number of sources. Locally, sources are saying it is a strong possibility but our D.C. sources have been saying that they haven’t heard that there are any legs to Bredesen’s chances.
Universally, our sources are saying right now that if Bredesen is going anywhere it is a bit soon to be saying so. That is the best information we can provide you at this time and will continue to monitor it closely.
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Does Phil Bredesen Believe In Universal Health Care?
Posted on at 9:59 amMany on the left are opposing the prospect of Tennessee’s Governor as the Health and Human Services Secretary on the basis that he is too conservative and not in line with Barack Obama’s commitment to universal coverage.
But what does Bredesen really believe in regards to health care policy? Is there too much daylight between our governor and the President or not?
Phil Bredesen, November 22, 2008:
We need a national health-insurance solution, but isn’t it sensible in the meantime to make sure everyone has a basic health plan before we give a few more people a perfect but expensive one? Shouldn’t we make sure everyone at least has a Chevy rather than providing a Cadillac to a few and letting the rest walk?
Phil Bredesen, July 31, 2008:
I’m a governor and a former CEO of a publicly traded health-care company. My own experience is that Americans of many different political stripes are ready to stop tinkering and instead devise a fresh and national solution to our health-care challenges. They expect a new administration to act.
John Seigenthaler Thinks Phil Bredesen Would Make A Fine HHS Secretary
Posted on at 9:49 amHe and others chime in on their picks to replace Tom Daschle at the Department of Health and human services:
As the former CEO of a highly successful HMO, Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat of Tennessee, mastered the complex economics of health care during the managed-care boom of the 1980s. As Mayor of Nashville in the 1990s, he presided over a city that emerged as one of the country’s leading health care hubs. And so, from experience inside the health care industry and as a close observer from outside, he knows that the system has become fatally flawed.
Meaningful change will upset diverse, competing special interests that have stakes in the status quo. Their lobbyists inevitably will criticize and condemn the initiative. Bredesen knows this because as governor he inherited a Medicaid program called TennCare that was beyond cure. He made tough, unpopular decisions and faced a barrage of criticism from those who complained about the skyrocketing cost of TennCare and those who condemned him because funding was inadequate to provide coverage to everyone. But Tennesseans trusted him to make the tough decisions, and later returned him to office by a vote of historic proportions.
Bredesen understands, as certainly Tom Daschle did, that superficial tinkering and tampering with a failed multi-faceted system is no answer. Only a new, different dynamic will make health care what the president has declared it to be: a citizen’s right.
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The Coop Is Loose
Posted on February 3, 2009 at 2:53 pmUPDATE: Cooper now says his words below don’t mean what you think.
With the withdrawal of Tom Daschle’s name from consideration for Health and Human Services chief, the obligatory speculation regarding whom the next nominee shall be necessarily follows.
Some folks like Howard Dean. Others have less controversial choices.
The Office of Management and Budget was, of course, the main job folks thought Congressman Jim Cooper would end up in if he chose to go to Washington. HHS, however, would not be a bad fit either, considering the congressman’s interest in healthcare.
And FYI for those of you who are operating under the misimpression that the Congressman is on the outs with the new administration for his vote against the stimulus need only to take a listen to Cooper’s interview yesterday with Liberadio(!):
Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I actually got some quiet encouragement from the Obama folks for what I’m doing. They know its a messy bill and they wanted a clean bill.
Now, I got in terrible trouble with our leadership because they don’t care what’s in the bill, they just want it pass and they want it to be unanimous. They don’t mind the partisan fighting cause that’s what they are used to. In fact, they’re really good at it. And they’re a little bit worried about what a post-partisan future might look like.
If members actually had to read the bills and figure out whether they are any good or not. We’re just told how to vote. We’re treated like mushrooms most of the time.
Of course, while this is evidence that Coop is still working inside the proverbial Obama circle it is also more evidence why he would never, ever take a job with the administration.
Why go on the inside when, as an independent operator in Congress, he can serve his own agenda AND play good cop or bad cop for the Obama administration depending on the need?
UPDATES:
Politico places Coop on the short list
Nate Rau with some thoughts
Daily Kos links up
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