Health and Peace: Sebelius Confirmed

Health And Peace: Sebelius Confirmed

Former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius has been confirmed to be our new Secretary of Health and Human Services. According to Talking Points Memo, the vote was 65-31.

Raising Women's Voices states of her: "Ms. Sebelius has eight years experience as Kansas’ insurance commissioner as well as six years as governor running a state Medicaid program. She is also, notably, extremely adept at working bipartisan politics as a Democratic politician in a Republican state. For both of her terms, Ms. Sebelius ran with a Republican on her ticket. As the Kansas insurance commissioner, Ms. Sebelius helped draft a proposed national bill of rights for patients, and blocked the sale of Blue Cross and Blue Shield to an out of state company because it would have raised premiums."

In honor of this very positive move, I'm making a not-quite-beside-the-point pun by posting below the video of Jean Sibelius's great symphony "Finlandia" as performed by Sinfoniaorkesteri (Finnish radio symphony orchestra), conducted by Sakari Oramo on October 22, 2005 at NHK Hall, Tokyo. After it are the opening lyrics as sung by us peace activists from the 1970s, still fresh today:



This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight shines on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too and clover
And skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine
O hear my prayer, O gods of all the nations
A song of peace for their lands and for mine


(Hat-tip for the conflation of Sibelius/Sebelius to the witty community of commenters at Dykes To Watch Out For.)

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Sebelius to Lead HHS

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Looks like the Good Dr. Dean will not be our point person at Health and Human Services.

The Gov. of Kansas will the President's nominee, to be officially annouced on Monday.

I like Kathleen Sebelius, and she's done a great job in Kansas, but I am disappointed. AND we will lose that governorship for sure. Going to be very hard to get another Dem in the top spot in that state.

And in other (unrelated) news Radio Hall of Fame-er-- and conservative Paul Harvey has died.

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VP Stakes: The Sebelius Edition

Kathleen Sebelius has gotten attention over the last few years as a successful D-Governor in the very R state of Kansas. She is an iconic figure for a unity ticket. She brings some of the disappointed women voters back to the table and helps end a lot of the talk about Obama being sexist. BUT she will also perhaps, make a lot of Hillary supporters angry if he chooses a woman who is not Hillary. She is catholic which would help bring in a strong segment of that voting population.

This part really got me interested;

She was first elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1986. In 1994 she left the House to run for state insurance commissioner and stunned political forecasters by winning — the first time a Democrat had won in more than 100 years. She is credited with bringing the agency out from under the influence of the insurance industry. She refused to take campaign contributions from insurers and blocked the proposed merger of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's largest health insurer, with an Indiana-based company. The decision by Sebelius marked the first time the corporation had been rebuffed in its acquisition attempts.-wikipedia

She has been endorsed by planned parenthood.
She is pro gun ownership but anti-concealed-carry law.
She is a strong environmental candidate.
Though she is not a supporter for gay-marriage laws she is an opponent of anti-gay marriage constitutional amendments and voted against one for Kansas. (though it passed with 70% support!)

As for my impressions; she did not do an amazing job on the rebuttal of the SOTU speech this year but she seems smart, principled, thoughtful. She must be a fighter to take on the insurance industry. She knows how to work with republicans but still push forward many items on a progressive agenda. I am left with a feeling that I want to know more and I will be interested to see and hear more about her.
What do you all think?

Reading up on Obama Sebelius '08;

http://www.wibw.com/localnews/headlines/19735104.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/12/meet-the-vp-candidate-kathleen-sebelius/

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