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
Bredesen Tells Politico He Doesn’t Think He’s Out Of The Hunt For HHS
Posted on February 24, 2009 at 12:03 pmSays he is/was on a very short list:
Q: Are you out of the mix for HHS secretary?
A: I don’t think so…but I don’t know…They certainly told me I was on a fairly short list of people being considered. I refer all further questions to them. I’m just really not sure where the process is.
I think [Kansas Gov.] Kathleen [Sebelius] is a good choice and if that’s the direction they decide to go I’d certainly be very, very supportive and try to help her in any way I can.
(HT: RU)
Bredesen The Wall Street Journal Pick For HHS
Posted on February 23, 2009 at 8:27 amFrom the Journal:
For MoveOn and the single-payer lobby, Mr. Bredesen’s approach is unacceptable because government doesn’t run everything. In a petition it has been circulating, MoveOn says that Mr. Bredesen would be a “bad choice” to run HHS because he “gutted” TennCare and made a “fortune acquiring and running HMOs.” Never mind that TennCare was breaking the state before Mr. Bredesen arrived.
Mr. Bredesen has been pushing back against what he calls “advocacy groups that fill up the garbage can and start dumping it all over you.” The criticism against him, he says, is that he “used a meat ax and not a scalpel” to reform TennCare. “If anything I went far, far too long trying to use a scalpel.”
News leaks say Mr. Obama’s next HHS choice may be Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, whose health-care views aren’t widely known. Perhaps she’ll turn out to be sensible. But it’s a shame Mr. Obama will miss an opportunity to show the left of his party that it doesn’t have a veto over reform-minded Democrats like Phil Bredesen.
(TFJ: Woods)
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 Goes To Washington And Your World And Mine Ain’t Gonna Be The Same
Posted on February 17, 2009 at 5:37 pmWhile Phil Bredesen may have succeeded in deflecting the spotlight that shown on him so brightly in the days after Tom Daschle removed himself from consideration for the position of Health and Human Services Secretary, the truth of the matter is that Tennessee still stands the very real possibility of losing its governor before his term ends.
Bredesen has been somewhat subtle about it but for those who can read between the lines it is quite clear Phil Bredesen would jump at the chance to serve the Obama Administration in Washington as either Secretary of Commerce or Health and Human Services.
Bredesen, as he has proved time and time again, is not a party loyalist. He routinely criticized Barack Obama during the Presidential campaign and, by praising a man who decided to eschew a Senate race against Lamar Alexander, he essentially endorsed the Republican in that race.
Despite running two victorious statewide campaigns, the second time carrying all 95 counties, Phil Bredesen has not succeeded in building a strong Democratic Party in Tennessee. His political success story is a personal one. His success and his defeats are largely apart from the party.
So, Phil Bredesen’s party, to the extent you can even call it “his”, is in shambles. Democrats have lost the state Senate. They are hanging on to limited power in the House by the thread of a moderate Republican betrayer. And, just recently, have turned over their actual party apparatus to a man who seems to lack establishment support and largely relies on volunteers to run the day to day operations of the party (to the extent that there are any).
Turning over the executive residence to the Republican in this economy may end up giving the Party some increased advantage in 2010 but largely, whether Bredesen stays or goes, the Democratic Party will remain in essentially the same predicament it finds itself now.
What a Bredesen departure would affect is not the Democratic Party but the Republican Party. Point of fact, an early Bredesen departure would throw a big bad grenade into a smoldering intraparty civil war.
Wamp partisans (as well as Gibbons) can say what they like but, right now, the Republican nomination for governor is Haslam’s to lose. Yes, some movement conservatives and evangelicals don’t like him and his past positions on guns may be a bit scary to the Second Amendment crowd. But Haslam has two very powerful things: money and a well-oiled political machine.
Zach Wamp may be a Congressman but he has little money and no power base from which to mount a campaign. He will run a credible race, just like Ed Bryant did in 2002 against Lamar but ultimately he will lose.
The only candidate who would even have half a shot at taking down Haslam is Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. Now, he doesn’t have the kind of personal wealth that Haslam does but he knows the state in way that Wamp doesn’t and most importantly, he knows the legislature — and the lobbyists who frequent it.
True, Ramsey can’t raise funds while the legislature is in session, but, just as soon as it’s out, he’s got a lot of people who are gonna want to give. After all, the man is the Lieutenant Governor. He’s gonna have people who want to be on his good side, no matter what he decides to do.
Of course, it would be difficult for Ramsey to defeat Haslam under present conditions — especially with Wamp in the race. Not impossible, but difficult. After all, Halam is backed with his big money and what is essentially Lamar Alexander’s political machine. That combination hasn’t lost many elections in Tennessee (see Bob Corker).
However, if Phil Bredesen were to leave for Washington. Lt. Gov. Ramsey would ascend to the governorship. Now, many folks talk about this as though its an unparalleled good for Republicans, and it is in many respects. However, Ron Ramsey as the incumbent governor running in 2010 could also very well ignite a serious intramural battle within the GOP.
If Bredesen does leave, Haslam will be faced with a choice: withdraw, pack up the machine he has put in motion to capture the executive residence and go home or continue on with the campaign and challenge a now incumbent Republican governor. Because, while Ramsey may be on the fence about running for governor, once he is governor, he doesn’t have a choice. The day Bredesen leaves is the day Ramsey stars his campaign to keep that office.
Might Haslam just drop out at that point? I suppose its possible but, like I said, the Howard Baker wing of the party doesn’t tend to lose primaries and while Ron Ramsey is not exactly a fire-breathing movement conservative ideologue he is close enough.
A Ramsey/Haslam primary with Ramsey as the incumbent would be the GOP primary to end all GOP primaries. Incumbents don’t usually lose but then again neither do millionaires with experienced political machines behind them either.
Haslam, who he is and what he represents, irks certain elements of the GOP. The new ideologues, the evangelicals, the gun nuts — they all are very suspicious of him. But without a little something extra they are powerless to stop him.
Ramsey in the race as an incumbent changes the game. With a Gov. Ramsey, the Right would have a credible candidate who could actually win a statewide primary.
It would be an epic struggle and, were it to take place, the result would likely settle more than a few intramural conflicts in the GOP once and for all.
Whether as member of either faction or as an observer, you have to be rooting for that.
He’s Not Campaigning For The Job, But We Do Hear Washington Is Lovely This Time Of Year
Posted on February 16, 2009 at 6:47 amSenior advisor to Governor Phil Bredesen, Will Pinkston, takes it upon himself to defend his boss against an attack on his health care record in the webspace of Congressional Quarterly:
Powers’ critique of Bredesen is startling, both for its ferocity as well as its lack of understanding of events surrounding the Volunteer State’s Medicaid restructuring in 2005. Powers’ treatise is beset by major errors of both commission and omission. He mischaracterizes Bredesen’s longstanding philosophy on the need for universal health care at the federal level. And he altogether ignores, or at least distorts, the facts about what happened in Tennessee’s Medicaid program, known as TennCare. Because Powers failed to put the situation in proper perspective, please allow me to do so.
(TFJ: Jeff Woods)
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In A Shortsville Minute
Posted on at 6:38 amAndy Sher explains why our governor would likely be more than happy to take a cabinet job in he Obama administration if offered:
“He does have sort of a mess,” said Ed Cromer, editor of the Tennessee Journal, a nonpartisan political newsletter.
The governor “has got a House that’s practically been fighting the Civil War and a speaker without a party,” Mr. Cromer said.
Rep. Gary Odom, D-Nashville and leader of the state House, said he thinks a national position might look pretty nice to the governor at this point.
“If you’re asking me if Phil Bredesen would accept a cabinet position, my answer would be: In a New York minute,” he joked.
Still, Rep. Odom said, the governor “enjoys solving problems and we know there’s plenty enough problems in Washington that need to be solved.”
But if the governor is looking for comfort, he may not find it in Washington. National attacks against his potential nomination for Health and Human Services continue flying.
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Bredesen Says He Wasn’t Campaigning For HHS Job Last Night
Posted on February 10, 2009 at 11:26 amTom Humphrey reports:
“First of all, while I think my state of the state speeches are really important, I kind of suspect that President Obama wasn’t watching, nor was Rahm Emanuel or anyone else like that,” Bredesen said in a telephone news conference this morning.
Bredesen said he has “talked extensively” about the subject in the past and felt it was an appropriate topic in the speech since many people are losing health insurance during the economic downturn.
“There wasn’t any signal intended in that stuff,” he said. “I’m not campaigning for this job.”
Bredesen said he was generally “feeling a little bemused” about the speculation, but felt obliged to “push back” against health care advocates who have launched a campaign to block any consideration of Bredesen for the job.
“I’m certainly not going to let somebody say things that are just plain wrong,” he said.
He described his detrators as “advocacy groups who start filling up a garbage can and dumping it all over you.”
The words are right there for everyone to see — as are the interviews which conveniently broke shortly after the speech. The case is circumstantial as they always are in situations such as these but it looks like a public relations effort to me.
SEE ALSO:
Jeff Woods
Think Progress
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Bredesen Is Totally Not Campaigning For The HHS Job
Posted on February 9, 2009 at 9:33 pmAnd he wants that made clear to national press outlets:
The governor and one of his top aides say he isn’t campaigning for the post but that they are not going to let the criticism go unanswered. His staff made available letters of support for him to Mr. Emanuel from the president of the Tennessee Hospital Association and from a half dozen pediatricians in the state.
SEE ALSO: The Politico
(HT: Insty)
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Bredesen: Ayo, Obama People, Y’all Watching My Speech?
Posted on 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
The Best Place For Sebelius
Posted on at 8:35 amMatt Yglesias wonders whether the best place for Phil Bredesen’s chief rival for the job of Secretary of Health and Human Services isn’t the United States Senate:
Sebelius would be an excellent Secretary. But as with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, I also think she could be an excellent United States Senator. And in Kansas, even more so than in Arizona, the second-best potential candidate is probably a good deal weaker. Of course cabinet positions aren’t inconsistent with Senate runs, but the timing doesn’t look great to me in either of these situations. And one thing we’re learning is that President Obama’s ability to deliver on a progressive agenda depends at least as much on the outlook in the Senate as it does on the quality of his team.
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Sebelius, Can You Believe This
Posted on at 7:55 amJeff Woods thinks Phil Bredesen is gonna have a hard time besting the other reported contenders for the job of Health and Human Services Secretary:
Let’s face it. Sebelius has got it all over Bredesen for this job. She was an early supporter of Obama for president. Bredesen didn’t get behind Obama until it became obvious he would win the nomination. Along the way, our governor cleverly bad-mouthed Obama, repeatedly telling one of the best campaigners in American political history that he was screwing things up with the Wal-Mart crowd.
Bredesen Fine With Handing The Reigns Of Power To Ramsey?
Posted on at 1:33 amClint Brewer notes that it sure seems that way:
Normally, there might be some measure of tension over a Democratic governor turning over his office to a leading Republican with almost two years left in a term. That would set Ramsey up well to run for a full term in 2010.
Yet, insiders say that tensions may not exist given an increasingly relaxed working relationship between Bredesen and Ramsey. Bredesen has seen his fellow Democrats turn their back on his wishes for the party on both House leader and state party chair. Making Tennessee Democratic Party activists happy might not be at the top of Bredesen’s list of priorities if he believes the state is in good hands.
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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Does Phil Bredesen Want To Be Senator Someday?
Posted on February 7, 2009 at 12:00 pmRep. Stacey Campfield thinks he does and if he’s smart the governor won’t take a job in Washington with the Obama administration — if asked:
Although the state is not in great financial shape right now Phil could stay in Tennessee and with the stimulus be sitting pretty, gearing up for a senate run in 5 years. The other side in DC would put him trying to force socialized medicine down peoples throat for Obama. Not a good place to be unless it is your final stop and socialized medicine is your big liberal dream. I think (hope) Phil having been in the private sector knows it will not work so why charge hard for something you don’t believe in?
I am sure he likes to have his name thrown around and all but I don’t see Phil moving anywhere. I don’t think he will be asked and if asked I don’t see him going.
Okay, We Got It, You Want The Job
Posted on 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
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