For more proof of how the left would react to the appointment of Phil Bredesen to run the Department of Health and Human Services, here's Dr. SteveB, the health care blogger over at DailyKos:
This choice would represent a complete betrayal by Obama of what he ran on in so many ways. Bredesen would be a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible choice. Sort of like putting Summers in charge of economic policy or Gregg in charge of Commerce. But worse. Maybe like putting Richard Perle in charge of DoD or Doug Feith at State.
He then goes on to give e-mail and phone contacts for the White House, so that readers can register their concerns--offering the administration a preview, I imagine, of what they'll hear if Bredesen is the choice.
(For the record, I happen to like Larry Summers and, I think, I can live with the Gregg appointment if it serves a purpose. But Dr. SteveB will get no argument from me about Bredesen.)
Dr. SteveB throws out some other interesting names for the job--chief among them, Dr. David Satcher, who served as Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary of Health under Clinton. During that time, Satcher wrote an important and highly influential report on mental health. Exactly what role Satcher played in crafting that report, and whether he has the requisite skills to run a department as vast as HHS, I don't know. But he might be worth a look.
--Jonathan Cohn