The Case For Kathleen Sebelius

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August 21, 2:13 AM

by Matt Wolf, Colorado Politics Examiner

 

 

She Got Game

Public Enemy said those words 20 years ago... maybe they knew that one day a black man would run for president in this country, and that his best possible running mate would turn out to be a woman. Chuck and Flav might not have guessed that she'd be a bad-ass white woman from Kansas, but she is. It would be a huge mistake for Barack Obama to pass her over for the likes of a human saline drip like Joe Biden or Evan Bayh.

Sebelius began her career as a public servant in 1986 when she was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives. In 1994, she ran for Insurance Commissioner as a consumer advocate and won, shocking political observers in Kansas. She achieved several reforms upon taking office, and was named one of the Public Officials of the Year by Governing Magazine.

Her mettle was soon tested when the state's largest insurer, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas, tried to merge with a company in Indiana. The merger/acquisition would have been good for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, but not so good for people in Kansas. After refusing to take contributions from the insurance industry during her campaign, Sebelius stood up to Blue Cross/Blue Shield and stopped the merger. An Insurance Commissioner in Kansas had never done that before.

The Republican party in Kansas is torn in half between moderates and right-wingers, effectively creating a third political party. In 2002, Sebelius saw an opening for a Democrat to win and ran for governor. Kansas voter registration breaks down 50-27 in favor of Republicans, but Sebelius earned 53 percent of the vote in her victory against Republican Tim Shallenburger.

She stepped into the governor's mansion and went to work on Kansas' financial problems, which at that time included a $1.1 billion budget deficit. Sebelius went hunting for government waste and got rid of the deficit, while at the same time presiding over the largest education spending increase in the history of the state. 

Her other highlights as governor include vetoing coal-fired power generators that the state's Republicans wanted to build, vetoing an insane concealed weapon bill, and winning 58 percent (again, in Kansas) of the vote in her 2006 reelection bid.

Another Democratic Governor from a traditionally Republican state, Tim Kaine from Virginia, is said to be on Obama's short list. I like Kaine, and his candidacy could tip Virginia into Obama's column. But with the polls tightening, Obama's going to need damn near every single disgruntled Hillary supporter to show up for him on November 4th. Naming a pro-lifer like Kaine as his Vice President does not seem like the smartest way to mollify a large bloc of women voters.

In 2003, Evan Bayh was a Co-Chairman on the Committee To Liberate Iraq, along with Bill Kristol, James Woolsey, and yes, John McCain. Seriously. I didn't make that up.

And then there's Joe Biden, currently seen as the favorite in the veepstakes. There are many Joe Biden stories that one can tell when one wishes to denigrate the Senator, but my favorite is when he torpedoed an amendment to the infamous 2005 Bankruptcy Bill. The amendment, proposed by Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois, would have protected men and women in our military from some of the bill's more draconian measures. Makes sense right? We ship 140,000 soldiers off to invade the wrong country, the least we could do is give them a break if they run into financial trouble.

Of course, most Republicans in the Senate voted against the amendment, and Biden led a small group of Democrats to do the same thing. The amendment failed, 62-38. Why would Biden do something like that, you ask? Well, where is Biden from? Delaware. Where are most of the credit card companies headquartered? Delaware. Thanks, Joe.

Kathleen Sebelius does not carry this kind of beltway baggage. She's a perfect fit for what is supposed to a "throw the bums out" campaign. If Obama goes with Bayh or Biden, then what exactly has all of his anti-Washington rhetoric even meant? Not a whole hell of a lot, you would have to think.

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