by Damozel |Till her confirmation, the administration was dealing with the
current public health crisis without anyone specifically in charge. (CNN)
Sebelius walks right into a pressure cooker at HHS, where she will have
to plunge into the swine flu panic while dealing with the complex
politics and policy involved in a historic health care reform effort. (The Politico)
18 "key positions" still remain to be filled. (CNN) Um...congratulations, Kathleen Sebelius!
Should be an initiation by fire:
Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, told a Senate panel on Tuesday that the virus responsible for
the latest flu outbreak was “a brand-new virus that we’ve never seen
before”: a hybrid including genetic material from viruses that cause
flu in humans, pigs and birds.
Ms. Sebelius, a former Kansas insurance commissioner, is expected to be a strong advocate for consumers in dealing with Congress on legislation to rein in health costs and expand coverage. (
The Caucus)
Though some antichoice senators of the GOP predictably threatened a filibuster due to her stance on abortion rights, Kansas governor Sebelius won her confirmation in a 65-31 vote, 10 short of the 41 needed for a filibuster. (The Politico) Some Republicans strongly supported Obama's choice, including Bob Dole, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pat Roberts (Kan.), Sam Brownback (Kan.) and Jon Huntsman (Utah).
A two-term Democratic governor in a Republican-leaning state....[s]he has been credited with boosting health
care assistance for the poor during her tenure. A number of leading
social conservatives have criticized Sebelius for her record on
abortion, citing, among other things, her veto as governor of
legislation that would have tightened abortion regulations in Kansas.
In vetoing the measure last April, Sebelius wrote that the bill was
problematic because it included no exceptions for pregnancies that
endanger a woman's life and it allowed individuals to seek court orders
preventing a woman from obtaining an abortion, even if the procedure
was necessary to save her life.(CNN)
So things didn't go as well for the anti-choice activists [to call them pro-life as the media now does is an insult to those of us who really are] as they were expecting before the vote. David Weigl at The Washington Independent has the background on the role of Brownback and Kansas politics in Sebelius's confirmation.
DWT has the names of the GOP senators who voted for confirmation, plus a trenchant and well-earned dismissal of those who didn't:
In his first vote as a Democrat, Arlen Specter voted to confirm, as did
Swine Flu Sue (R-ME), Kit Bond (R-MO), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Judd Gregg
(R-NH), Richard Lugar (R-IN), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Olympia Snowe (R-ME),
and George Voinovich (R-OH). The rest of the GOP extremists and
obstructionists voted no, as they do on everything. Sebelius was the
last cabinet member who the Senate Republicans were holding hostage to
their sore loser insanity.
Memeorandum has more here.
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