I nominate Howard Dean.

The Beltway rallies to one of it's own. Never mind the warts, blemishes, conflicts of interest and questions of integrity. He was one of them, so they mourn him like a paragon of virtue instead of what he was-- failed hack, industry lobbyist, Washington insider, anathema to change.

Let them say whatever they like. Good riddance, says I.

Seconded.

stand together!

You want outside the beltway on health care? Way outside? Plus integrity and knows how to wear blue leans (she typed with a leer)? John Kitzhaber. Oregon.

You remember Oregon? 33rd state? That gorgeous speed-bump between California and Seattle?

Seriously.

John Dean? You're joking.

He HAD to go. Way too much baggage.

And I second again and again the nomination of Dean.

That's Howard Dean, not John Dean. Big difference.

And Kudos to Glenn Greenwald for pointing out what a big med whore this reason the Repubs won was. Now to deal with Reid.

What and unprincipled dick. Had he had half the brain of the scarecrow in Wizard of OZ he would have realized and fought against that easily predictibly disastrous war, the way conservatives make themselves sound so convincing that Keynesian economics is the end of civilization.

Loser. May your lobbyist clients be rejected for a bailout.

I second the nomination of Howard Dean.

I hope by now he has been fully vetted. He certainly knows the political ropes. He's a doctor and he understands health care issues. He's been a governor; he knows how to run things.

I think nominating him would swiftly bring all this nonsense to an end and let HHS get to work.

Meant surely not Howard Dean, not surely not John Dean. Saw Front/Nixon over the weekend...

We all know Tom Daschle will be back next week "mingling" with his former Senate mates while receiving millions but not actually "lobbying" on their behalf.

Daschle is a boomerang that always comes back to the cash.

I would highly recommend John Kitzhaber. He was an emergency room physician turned politician. A state senator who rammed the Oregon Health Plan through the legislature. It was one of the earliest attempts to move towards universal health care, done small on a state wide basis. He later served as Governor during a time when the legislature was dominated by insane, far right Republican cranks and did a damn good job of protecting a lot of what he'd accomplished. He has integrity, smarts, and experience. Plus, he's a kind of colorful guy, in a western, Oregon way.

He'd be perfect for the job, IF he would take it. He likes to fly fish a lot and doesn't seem interested in playing power politic games anymore. So maybe he would just turn it down. You couldn't find a better guy though. Seriously.

(and no, Oregon isn't a "speed bump" between California and Washington. In fact, Washington is simply the "lost counties" of Oregon... as is northern California, and parts of Idaho, Montana and B.C. ... look up "Oregon Territory".... so there!)

Remember, these are the same people who gave newly-convicted felon, Alaskan ex-Senator Ted Stevens, a standing ovation a few weeks back when he left the Senate....

What did Dr. Dean say back in the day? Please, somebody, dig it up.

And... Daschle's tax cheating was not just an innocent mistake. He must have consciously believed he might get away with it. He had to pay about $100k in income taxes on it, so the value of those chauffeured Caddy rides must have been about $300k.

How much is that? It must equal a couple years' car payments, insurance, plus chauffeur salary. It's no just some little Woops.

As a fifth generation native Oregonian on my mother's side, all I can say is, damn, dude, lighten up.

Do you want the Californians stopping here? Look around at what they've already done to us. Let 'em admire us as they whiz by going 10 miles an hour slower on I-5 than they can in CA or WA. Just don't tell them we have glorious days like today (in the People's Republic of Portland, anyway).

When did we Oregonians get so damn sensitive?

And yes, Kitzhaber by all means...

"I'm tired of the ideological debate in the Democratic party over whether we ought to have a single payer or something else. Because when the Democrats fight among each other, the Republicans and their special interests kill the bill, and the 42 million people with no health insurance go for another 10 years without health insurance. That's not what we want! We're going to end up with a comprehensive plan that will pass, insure everybody, and then we're going to have a big fight about how to reform the health care system, but we're not going to keep those 42 million people out in the cold anymore.

What we ought to be demanding as Democrats, is what Harry Truman put in the 1948 Democratic Party platform: health insurance that covers everybody, just like they have in Germany, France, Costa Rica, Japan, Ireland, and Italy! Every single industrialized country on the face of the earth has health insurance for all of its people. Why can't we have what all those countries have?"

If anyone can seriously look at the last 30 years of health care in this country, how it is now a leading cause of bankruptcy, how tens of millions - more than 10% of the population - do not have it at all, well then perhaps he too needs to withdraw. The serious sepulchral tones of Senator Kerry describing Tom Daschle's selfless service, my God. Most Americans do not have chauffeurs Senator, or the IRS looking the other way for tax offenses. Be sure to bring Tom and his lovely lobbying wife a nice gift at their next party so they can know you will listen to their clients' requests for pending health care legislation.

They just confirmed a man as treasury secretary who had far more egregious tax offenses. Daschle's were more technicalities - a misreported income statement (from the payer, not him) and a benefit (car service) that neither he nor his tax preparer's though of as taxable. But they couldn't confirm two people with tax problems in a row, so they dumped Daschle. They should never have even proposed Geithner, and then Daschle would probably have been excusable. Having a man who blatantly cheated on taxes in charge of the IRS is not a good idea, anyway.