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Washington Prowler
Obama’s Man From Tennessee
Gov. Phil Bredesen is a finalist to succeed Tom Daschle as HHS nominee — but there are problems on the ethics front.
White House sources say that President Barack Obama has locked in on Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen as one of two top candidates to replace former Sen. Tom Daschle as his nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary. The other potential nominee is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
“It’s down to only a couple of names,” says a member of the HHS transition team. “They’re both strong candidates. Bredesen was probably in front for a while, but the MoveOn types have just been kicking the crap out of him. That might be a good reason for the president to appoint him, though.”
But Obama probably can’t afford to have another nominee with more ethics issues lodged against his state administration than Daschle had tax liens.
Bredesen’s administration in Tennessee has been tarred with a series of scandals, most of them involving the governor’s office in some form or another. For example, back in 2005, it was revealed that almost 100 members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol who were promoted either gave political contributions to the governor’s campaign or had family members or influential friends who did. Those promotions represented almost two-thirds of all promotions given that year.
That same year, Bredesen was forced to seek an independent investigation of his own office, after it was reported that his tourism commissioner handed out a $400,000 state contract to a friend, who also served on the governor’s transition team.
Finally, in 2005 and 2006 it was reported that Bredesen’s office shredded and otherwise sought to contain workplace sexual harassment complaints made against high-ranking state officials or those employees with ties to the governor’s office. Similar cases involving low-level civil servants in the state were not treated in a similar fashion.
Radical leftist groups have been attacking Bredesen for cuts he made to the state health-care program, and while he has been pushing to keep his name in the running for the slot, it isn’t clear that he a frontrunner any longer.
Kathleen Sebelius, who is similar to Bredesen in that she has cultivated a moderate image, has been considered for several Cabinet level positions by Obama. She is also considered a leading candidate to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
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Drudge ette Obama| 2.12.09 @ 7:04AM
So what's the problem with Bredesen? As long as he pays his taxes, he should be o.k. Right?
What we need for HHS is a tax-paying nanny who takes the bus. What about Obama's mother-in-law.
Robbins Mitchell| 2.12.09 @ 8:07AM
As a former Tennessean living in Houston,I still follow politics back home fairly closely....even as a Goldwater/Regan Republican,I have to give Bredesen credit where it is due.....TennCare was bleeding the state dry with out of staters fraudulently gaining treatment there and Bredesen got that under control....and unlike most of his Democrat colleagues,he is not really that enthusiastic a 'taxist'....resisting a state sales tax among others......and these are the reasons why he would probably not do well in Washington...much less in the Obama cabinet
Slowtrot| 2.12.09 @ 9:09AM
So what if he's got ethical pronlems? WE got Geithner didn't we? Picky, picky.
Just remember this when we vote in 4 years! If we get a vote.
And you fools in Maine and Pennsylvania - congratulations!
Teleprompter Messiah| 2.12.09 @ 9:22AM
Bredesen has been the best conservative governor Tennessee has had in a long time. Unexpectedly so, too, for a Yankee transplant from New York.
What recommends him is that he really does understand how Medicare/Medicaid affect a state. TennCare was a generous attempt to insure a lot of folks, but demands and mandates put on the program pushed it beyond the means of the state budget. Unlike tax and spenders in New York and California, Bredesen chose to scale back the program and did so in the face of tremendous opposition from his own party.
Unlike Daschle, Bredesen will at least understand that states are the ones who partially administer these federally mandated programs and how the demands of the mandates can overrrun the resources. Practical experience at being the one poked by the sharp end of the stick will hopefully bring some reality to Democrat healthcare wet dreams.
As a bonus, his departure will give us a Republican governor. Thank you President Obama.
Gill O'Teen| 2.12.09 @ 9:26AM
What's O-bum-ah, he's not my president, thinking? MoveOn types and other radical leftist groups don't like Bredesen for exercising his state constitutional duty to balance the budget. I don't blame them. History now has trillions of examples that the only correct decision to make is to spend, spend, spend our way into bankruptcy.
kenny komodo| 2.12.09 @ 10:04AM
Sheesh how far into the Obambi administration do you have to dig before you find someone who is not involved in a scandal of some sort or who is not involved with moveon.org or is not associated with some radical Islamic group.
Caped Crusader| 2.12.09 @ 10:20AM
As a Tennessee hard right conservative who has never voted for Bredesen I must say he is a good as we could get from Obama. He at least has had a job in the real world and knows how it works and is basically honest, which will make him unique among his cohorts. Hope that we get him!
megapotamus| 2.12.09 @ 11:20AM
It is a bit unfair to Bredesden but he reminds me of young Julio who asked Barack the question about the benefits his administration would bestow on folks like him, a four year McDonalds vet. Sure, there doesn't seem to be much there to work with but, since he actually has a job, he is the cream of the Obot crop. Phil's negatives would be pretty manageable even for a Republican so for a Democrat he is squeaky clean.
Michael Brown| 2.12.09 @ 1:14PM
As a native Tennessean who still follows politics back home (I'm a Georgia resident now), I can say that at least Bredesen has real world business experience in the healthcare industry and he has indeed made reforms to TennCare. He is a yankee transplant, though from Massachusetts, not New York.
Incidentally, when he ran for the Mass state legislature some 35+ years ago, he said he was open to legalizing marijuana. I posed a question about that during his first run for Governor in '94 when visiting my high school. He waffled and the local headline in the Clinton Courier was "Bredesen Alters Marijuana Stance." It was used in a campaign ad against him in the general election by Don Sundquist. Sundquist turned out to be a dud in his second term (wanted to implement a state income tax).
Pingback| 2.12.09 @ 2:17PM
Obama’s Man From Tennessee - Spectator.org | Tennessee online pharmacy links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ruth| 2.12.09 @ 2:18PM
Funny that the moveon crowd ignores the scandals embroiling Bredesen but attacks him for his fiscal policies. So much for ethics we can believe in.
Jay Treadway| 2.12.09 @ 2:51PM
As a conservative Republican I have been pretty pleased with Gov. Bredesen. Did not vote for him his term, but did vote for him his second term after he proved to me that he understood budgets and was not a liberal dogmist ready to give the Tennessee bank to everyone with a hand out. All in all, a pretty good governor.
Teleprompter Messiah| 2.12.09 @ 3:01PM
Michael Brown:
Bredesen was born in New Jersey but grew up in New York. He went to Harvard.
One thing that all of that points to is that for a Yankee transplant (not named Rockefeller) to become governor of a Southern state shows that the South is not the fever swamp nativist place of Manhatten imagining.
guil mason| 2.12.09 @ 3:19PM
I believe he went to high school in Shortsville, NY
Interloper| 2.13.09 @ 1:40AM
As I've said before, "The Prowler" is too embarrassed to put his name on his pieces. That's because he makes a heck of a lot of stuff up. You'll not see a single attribution in the attack on Gov. Bredesen above.
ruth| 2.13.09 @ 10:49PM
Groper, you never offer facts to support your silly diatribes. Go home, your cave awaits you.
ruth| 2.13.09 @ 10:50PM
You sexist pig; maybe the Prowler is a woman.
TerryO| 2.15.09 @ 8:41AM
"...the MoveOn types have just been kicking the crap out of him."
It's not a secret that a large portion of George Soros fortune was created in currency markets, particularly when he 'broke the pound sterling.' If MoveOn at Soros' direction wishes to see the U.S. exponentially expand their debt structure isn't Soros' currency position obvious? Old Georgy boy isn't in this to see Americans get more, he's in it to see himself get more.
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