President Obama has settled on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, a key ally with a record of working across party lines, as his top choice for secretary of health and human services, advisers said Wednesday. […]
It remained unclear whether the White House would finish vetting Ms. Sebelius in time to finalize her nomination by next week. Advisers described her as “the leading candidate” and said there were no others to mention, although they emphasized no final decision has been made. After the troubles with Mr. Daschle and other recent nominees, the White House has intensified its vetting to make sure it thoroughly scrubs its choices before Mr. Obama gives the final signoff.
Assuming Sebelius is nominated and accepts the gig (and you would think she would have publicly declined by now if she were not willing to serve), Democrats will have a pretty barren shelf of possible candidates for the state’s open Senate race in 2010. What a bummer.
SSP currently has this race on our list of Races to Watch, but it’s hard to see how this contest heats up without the presence of Sebelius.
But not stunning. Oh, and we only even have a prayer of winning this if the nominee is Tiahrt and Moran goes down ripping him nearly to shreds. Our best bet now is Dennis Moore, and we could conceivably hold his house seat because Obama won it, but that wouldn’t be fun.
But WTF does Rahmbo have against Dean again? He was made for this job.
she would win the Senate seat anyway
that he needs to pick sitting senators and governors for every single post in his administration?
Setting aside the idiocy of taking out our only change to win the KS-SEN race, Kansas is in a lot of turmoil financially. How does plucking their well-liked governor out of the equation help things at all, either for the state or for the Democrats’ image?
I like Obama, I’ve been supporting the guy for a long time, but his cabinet selections have been absolutely baffling – and this one might take the cake.
Chop chop!
Yes, I just told the President of the United States to go have sexual intercourse with himself. And why wouldn’t I? It’s like Obama reads this blog, looks at our hopes and dreams for the Democratic Party, and does the complete opposite in an effort to truly piss us off.
Well, congratulations Mr. President, mission accomplished. My honeymoon with you is definitely over.
this makes the teeny tiny senate guru-ito inside me cry with the power of a monsoon…
but, hey… i do love me some boyda. heres to hoping tiahrt and moran rip eachother to shreads
Parkinson already signalled that he wouldn’t run for Governor in 2010, but that was as Lt. Gov; if he became the incumbent, would that change matters?
the Governor agrees to stay out of the 2010 Senate race and take the cabinet job in exchange for the Republicans releasing their stranglehold on the state budget?
maybe we can entertain the notion that if Sebelius really wanted to run for the Senate, she would have said no to a cabinet position?
I’m not going to attack Obama for picking someone who may or may not have decided to run for a Senate seat in the future. Napolitano though, yeah that put a Republican in charge at a critically bad time. But this outrage over Sebelius is overblown.
There’s an unspoken hierarchy to cabinet posts and HHS is close to the very top of that list. The things that the appointee is going to do will be critical for the future and has very real ramifications, if it was a nothing BS department then I couldn’t care less, but with the healthcare system already at breaking point I want the very best to dedicate themselves to fixing it. I don’t see why Sebelius doesn’t fit that description.
An uproar over a potential Senate gain lost just strikes me as a classic failure to see the forest for the trees. We CANNOT allow America’s healthcare system to go ahead in its present state any longer.
The stimulus just passed by the barest 60 votes. If Obama wants to be reelected, and bring dramatic change to this country (not change designed by Susan Collins) he needs 61 votes in the Senate that will not compromise and water down legislation.
And he needs that in two years so he has at least one year of quality actions to present the American people when he runs again.
Yo President Obama…. the country and your party really don’t want Susan Collins deciding the legislative direction of this country.
I wonder if he asked Susan if it is okay with her to appoint Sebelius….
During the last campaign we had two governors here stumping for Obama: Sibelius and Governor Janet Napolitano.
Governor Napolitano was great- funny, articulate, engaging and SMART. In comparison, Sibelius was like watching paint dry… Good choice for a cabinet post.
I agree with you that our only shot is Sebelius for this race, but I’m not sure if KS-03 would be an automatic loss (though it would be frightening). Unlike NY-20, Democrats actually have quite a few state legislators in that district. If I recall correctly, 5 of the 9 state senators representing portions of that districts are Democrats. The same definitely cannot be said about NY-20.