‘Daschle Debacle’ Has Obama Team Scrambling
The new front-runner for health secretary may not be the smartest choice for the Democrats.
Bredesen is available. He can probably work in a bipartisan fashion to promote Obama’s health reform plans better than most any of the other contenders from the ranks of the House and Senate who are extremely partisan. He would give Obama his first southern cabinet official. And he is not in position to run for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee until 2012 at the earliest — against Senator Bob Corker. Obama could probably enlist the support of both of the Republican senators from Tennessee, Corker and Lamar Alexander, in pushing the Bredesen nomination through the Republican side of the Senate with minimal controversy. (The fact that Bredesen’s selection would elevate Republican Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey into the top spot makes backing Bredesen an easy option for the Tennessee senators.) Obama doesn’t need another tough cabinet fight or another embarrassing loss of a cabinet pick. Bredesen would almost certainly breeze through the confirmation process.
Bredesen should be his choice. But he probably won’t get the nod because it just makes too much sense to pick him. Some liberal groups are opposing him because he made tough cuts in taxpayer-paid health care programs in Tennessee in order to avoid the budget disasters that now plague states that did not make those same difficult decisions. As a result, Tennessee is not now faced with making the draconian cuts that loom in places like California, New York, and Michigan.
Bredesen is not particularly close to the inner circle in the Obama administration. He may lack the top level advocates necessary to emerge as the pick. But President Obama should consider the fact that his inner circle has produced the selections that have proven so damaging in his first few weeks in office — Geithner, Daschle, Killefer, Richardson, and Solis, to name a few.
At the end of the day, political partisanship and cronyism may win the day for selection as secretary of health and human services. But if President Obama has been paying attention over the past few weeks, those criteria are not working out so well for him so far.
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Steve Gill is a political analyst and statewide radio talk host in Tennessee. His website is www.gillreport.com.
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13 Comments
1. Sk8 Punk:This is what is so fun about the Obama administration! They are hiliariously inept and incompetent. In less than four weeks he has lost multiple posts, and should be losing more. Welcome to Chicago America! The only real question is how long the press can insulate him from criticism? In this regard, Obama should prove to be Clinton 2.0 (http://rebelsk8.blogspot.com/2009/02/clinton-2doh.html) – the latest, updated version of the Teflon Man.
Feb 9, 2009 - 5:20 am 2. Sedona:The Obama administration …. three weeks in … have already lost credibility with most Americans. He did exactly what Clinton did when he first became President, he allowed the Democrats that have been in office since the foundation of the capital was poured to walk all over him and hijack his agenda. In Obama’s case, he turned over his signature policy proposal … the so-called stimulus bill … to two of the worst liberal political hacks in America, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Now Obama finds himself in the awkward position of trying to defend an indefensible proposal to the American people … and they aren’t buying. Perhaps the next election the American people will understand there is a difference between campaigning and actual governing?
Feb 9, 2009 - 6:05 am 3. RE:Contrasting Obama’s campaign words to his post-election deeds is certainly something the Democrats would much rather we not do.
‘Hope and Change’ has turned into hysterical fear mongering. On transparency, legislative review periods, ethical governnment, lobbysists, cuttting waste from government, …. Obama is proving himself to be a flat-out liar.
Feb 9, 2009 - 6:44 am 4. e:Its has occurred to me that Obama is selecting mostly politicians for cabinet posts. Very few civil servants or private sector selections. I guess competence is not a discriminating factor.
Feb 9, 2009 - 7:34 am 5. JoeS:It is very interesting to analyze the possible scenarios. It is funny when good choices will not be made… because they make too much sense.
We made a grave error electing this poser to be President.
Feb 9, 2009 - 8:51 am 6. Geofizz:Obama is selecting mostly centrists/moderates for the positions he doesn’t care about: e.g., defense and foreign policy. For those areas of domestic policy that are near and dear to him, he’s choosing leftists who are on the same wavelength as he is. So unless Sebelius and Bredesen believe in nationalized healthcare that is to be implemented gradually (so that Americans embrace it), I doubt they would be serious contenders. Socializing healthcare is a high priority for Obama and Daschle was right there in lockstep with him. It’s going to be difficult to find another like-minded person with Dashle’s political insider experience.
Oh, and all this talk of wanting to do things in a bipartisan fashion is hooey. Smoke and mirrors I say. We’ll only see “bipartisan” to the extent that it’s needed for Obama to provide cover for himself while he rams disagreeable policies down our throats. Either that or when he doesn’t care enough about something such that he can afford to be “bipartisan.”
Feb 9, 2009 - 10:21 am 7. Cybergeezer:With this line-up of tax cheats and felons, they’re going to have to pass new legislation to protect themselves.
Feb 9, 2009 - 12:22 pm 8. kuz:Am laughing my a** off as how IMCOMPETENT this Nobana is!
I say: the PEOPLE of this country DESERVE HIM.
They elected him.
Now, get ready to pay more taxes, so they can spend on COMMUNIST ideas as this idiot Obama learned and admired; The head of the Communist party was his mentor among others.
Yes, it’s real and not made up.
Bottom line: in one of the Robert Redford (left promoting) movie, ‘The Candidate’ reflect exactly what Obama did.
Feb 9, 2009 - 12:41 pm 9. Joe Camel:At the end of the campaign of BS, he (Redford) sit in the car and says: “now what”
Yup, that’s exactly how this is being played out now.
Neither have a clue as what to do.
In the end, where we get it..who would have ever thunk it..
Feb 9, 2009 - 5:28 pm 10. Margaret:If they go running to look at the Australian example (heaven forbid) maybe No Bananas will ask Paul Keating to take on the role ROFL
Feb 9, 2009 - 6:39 pm 11. BigCreek:Hey Zero! Leave our Governor alone. He may be a demonRat, but he is out demonRat. He is doing a good job for our state and we don’t need some second rate demo hack taking his place.
Feb 9, 2009 - 7:24 pm 12. John Brown:Queen Kathleen will not be a US Senator. Not from Kanzas, anyway. Right now she’s trying to hide the $380 million hole in the budget her Lawrence Liberal Lawyer buddies created by having the courts turn over tons of money to the public school system. That was fine until Obama et al started complaining about private jets and darn near put Cessna/Learjet/Hawker-Beechcraft outta business. Now, the revenues ain’t there so’s the Wichita USD 259’s 8000 employees can’t whitewash Wichita West’s 40% graduation rate and folks from Elkhart to White Cloud are gonna be hot to trot. Queen Kathleen knows when to get outta Dodge. And, right now, the getting out is good.
Ya’ll have a nice day.
Feb 9, 2009 - 10:29 pm 13. savage24:All I hear out of the democrats is doom and gloom, if we don’t go along with them on this spending spree. If we do go along with them it means bankruptcy for the USA. Welcome to the United Socialist States of America.
Feb 10, 2009 - 1:49 pm