Phil Bredesen becomes America's Health Care Enemy No. 1
by Jeff Woods
One minute Phil Bredesen was minding his own business, trying to cobble together a state budget with a $1 billion hole in it. Then reporters put him on the list for President Obama's Cabinet. Suddenly he's Public Enemy No. 1.
As soon as the Beltway buzz named Bredesen as a top contender to replace Tom Daschle as Obama's nominee to lead the Health and Human Services Department, liberal health-care advocates started unleashing their pent-up venom against the governor. They keep screaming about all that blood splattering his Italian loafers from the TennCare massacre, in which Bredesen tossed 200,000 people off the health insurance rolls to control costs.
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said if Obama named Bredesen to head HHS, it would create "a firestorm."
"Governor Bredesen presided over the largest public health cutback in the history of our nation, so it would cause enormous difficulty for President Obama if Gov. Bredesen joined the health reform team because he represents the antithesis of what the president is trying to achieve," he told Politico.
Even Andrea Conte wasn't off limits. In the opposition research peddled by advocates was this: BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee donated $150,000 to the renovation of the governor's mansion—a project led by the first lady.
"A lot of elected officials are in bed with the insurance industry, but Phil Bredesen doesn't stop there. He let them pay to redecorate his mansion. We can't think of anyone more wrong for health-care reform or more wrong for America," said Jacki Schechner, spokeswoman for Health Care for America Now.
Bredesen could put a stop to it all merely by saying he doesn't want the job. The problem is, he does want it. With the state in financial meltdown, he'd gladly lead Obama's ambitious health-care reform efforts.
"If it were a case of really being able to help in some fundamental way, something I really believe in which is to create universal health care, I certainly would think about it and talk about it," the governor said.
Translation from politician-speak: "Get me the hell out of here."
As the Scene went to press, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius had jumped ahead of Bredesen on Obama's list.
Sebelius was clearly the better choice. She was an early supporter of the president. Bredesen didn't get behind Obama until it became obvious he would win the nomination. Along the way, our governor cleverly bad-mouthed Obama, repeatedly telling one of the best campaigners in American political history that he was screwing things up with the Wal-Mart crowd.
As for Sebelius' views on health care, advocacy groups don't know much. But so what? With the advocates, anybody's better than Bredesen.
Devil in a Blue Suit
Lawmakers returned to Nashville this week for a harmonious bipartisan beginning to the 2009 session. (Hahahaha.) The first item of business: State GOP chair Robin Smith expelled House Speaker Kent Williams from the party for "untrustworthy behavior," saying he has proven "that his only allegiance is to himself."
Smith said it wasn't just that Williams voted against Jason Mumpower as speaker. Since then, she said Williams has crammed 49 House Republicans into 46 offices (gasp!). And to top it off, he ate breakfast last week with the governor in the company of former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh.
Williams also had the audacity to pray with House Republican leaders "less than 30 minutes prior to his betrayal," an outraged Smith told reporters. Denying she was sounding even a little petulant, she insisted, "This isn't about retribution."
Williams responded by accusing Smith of running a "narrow-minded" party, and House Democratic leader Gary Odom invited Williams to strip Republicans of committee chairmanships.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, could be considered the happy talk.
Later, Williams recalled how he was "really shocked" on the day of his election as House speaker when Smith approached the podium and called him the devil.
"Her exact words were, 'Congratulations, speaker. It's hard to kill the devil but in two years, you're a dead man.'
"That's a pretty harsh statement," Williams told reporters.
Smith denied she invoked Satan, contending she was speaking to Naifeh at the time. "That is an absolute lie," she said of Williams' account. She didn't approach the podium at all, she said, but looked Naifeh "straight in the eye" from the House floor. "I just mouthed the words, 'It's hard to kill the devil.' Kent Williams continues to try to personalize this."
Email jwoods@nashvillescene.com, or call 615-844-9445.
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