Oh, please, please let it be!
Newsroom / Archives
Top Pols Endorse Dean for HHS (The Nation)
Date: 02/09/2009
Ari Berman
He's certainly a longshot--if he's being considered for the position at all--but top Democrats are nevertheless endorsing Howard Dean to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services in the wake of Tom Daschle's resignation.
After all, Dean provided universal healthcare coverage to children and pregnant women as governor of Vermont, was a doctor for twenty-five years, his wife Judy still practices in Burlington and he grasps the complexities of healthcare reform as well as anyone.
"Governor Dean understands, as you do, that all Americans are entitled to health care as a right of citizenship, and that we must pay far more attention to the needs of our children if we are to have a healthy and prosperous society," Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who clashed with Dean in the past, wrote in a letter to President Obama on Sunday. "As you well know, reforming our health care system will not be easy. It will take somebody with determination and focus to lead that effort. I think that Howard Dean is that person."
Sanders' letter followed the endorsement of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, chairman of the Agriculture Committee and co-chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, who also liked the idea of Dean helming HHS. "I think that would be a very good move," Harkin told Huffington Post. "He brings all the background and experience. He's very strong on prevention and wellness, which I'm very strong on. I think he'd make an outstanding secretary of HHS."
Our own Katrina vanden Heuvel got the ball rolling, endorsing Dean on February 1 and calling on Daschle to step aside due to his tax problems and coziness with the healthcare industry. Immediately after Daschle withdrew, a group of activists launched a Facebook group promoting Dean as his replacement. Last Wednesday, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva--who made the shortlist for Interior Secretary--penned a letter to Obama making the case for Dean. "While most of the public have only known Howard as a ground-breaking candidate for president and one of the most successful leaders of our party, I have also known him as
champion for universal healthcare," Grijalva wrote. "It has been the cause of his life."
Grijalva also addressed Dean's critics in Washington, which may still including Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who clashed with Dean during the '06 elections. "In recent days I have heard some Washington insiders question Governor Dean's political credentials and accuse him of being too partisan to build consensus and broker compromises on the Hill," Grijalva wrote to Obama. "It's true that even after four years as DNC Chairman, Governor Dean remains an outsider in DC circles. I believe Governor Dean did a great job rebuilding our party from the bottom up, establishing a 50-state strategy and taking on the forces in both parties who have forced delays and diversion on the key issues of your campaign."
Other endorsees including Congressman Peter Welch (D-VT) and Alan Grayson (D-FL).
In backing Dean, Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift admitted he'd be an unconventional choice. But as The Nation noted in a recent editorial, isn't that what Obama's "team of rivals" philosophy is all about?
Wrote Clift:
Obama prides himself on how magnanimous he is, so you can't rule out that he might reward someone who like him was an early and consistent opponent of the Iraq War, who helped lead the party out of the wilderness and who many Democrats think has been badly treated. Obama certainly wouldn't have to give Dean the dual portfolio with the White House title that he had so easily conferred on Daschle. And Emanuel is a political realist. If Obama went with Dean, he wouldn't fall on his sword over it; he'd probably find other ways to get his revenge. That's how Washington works: don't get mad, get even.
Unfortunately, Washington often works in far more dysfunctional ways. The Obama White House already floated the name of former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, who by various accounts had an awful record on healthcare while running the state. A more promising name on the HHS shortlist is Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, an early endorser of Obama and popular state official who dealt extensively with the healthcare issue as governor and insurance commissioner before that.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
