Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Politics / Woods Bredesen Strikes Back at Critics
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 7:20 AM
Gov. Phil Bredesen came out swinging today against liberal health care advocates who are trying to torpedo his bid to lead President Obama's health care reform efforts. He even trotted out former Gov. Ned McWherter, the creator of TennCare, to defend Bredesen for gutting the program. McWherter blames it all on his predecessor, Don Sundquist, of course: "When I left, the next administration took over and they had five different commissioners in five years and lost control of cost containment. He's got the background and knowledge to develop a program and give us national health care."
Both the Wall Street Journal and Politico note that Bredesen is violating political protocol here and may wind up publicly embarrassing himself by appearing to grovel for the job. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who is believed to be Bredesen's main rival, declined comment to WSJ. Bredesen insists he's not lobbying. Really?
WSJ calls it "unusual public jockeying over the cabinet post," and Politico says: "Bredesen finds himself in a delicate position. Political protocol dictates that those interested in high-level appointments not actually voice their interest. But as an ambitious former CEO and governor -- somebody who stepped into the Democratic primary last year to propose a mini-convention of super delegates -- Bredesen is loathe to let the considerable incoming fire he's taking go unanswered, especially on an issue to which he's devoted much of his business and government career."
To the Wall Street Journal, Bredesen says, "Anybody who's got some real scars and experience is going to have their detractors. People at the White House are smart enough to be able to assess that." And he took a swipe at his opponents, saying that "advocacy groups don't matter nearly as much as the pharmaceutical groups, the hospitals, the doctors' groups. There's a lot of very powerful interest groups that will play in this thing."
He tells Politico: "When I come in as governor, I inherited a complete disaster. TennCare was on the brink of collapse and was eating up every dime of all new revenue coming into the state. It had a completely open-ended benefit structure."
He's peddling support from the Tennessee Hospital Association and a half dozen pediatricians. The doctors sent a letter to the White House saying "there would be little or no Medicaid of any type available to the pregnant women and children of Tennessee" except for the governor's cost savings in the dismantling of TennCare.
And oh yes, about that criticism of the first lady for taking $150,000 from BlueCross BlueShield to help renovate the governor's mansion. Bredesen is dismissive, noting that he and his wife, Andrea Conte, don't even live in the state residence.
"It was in terrible shape and Andrea undertook a project to renovate mansion get in better shape for next governor." The criticism, he says, amounts to: "Let's just throw something at the guy."
As if he were sitting for a White House interview, Bredesen made an obvious sales pitch for himself in last night's "State of State" speech, going out of his way to point out "something that I've believed for a long time: that we need a national solution for health insurance. Our health care system has become antiquated and unfair, and I deeply hope that a new President and a new Congress can fashion the solution that Tennessee and America deserve."
h/t Kleinheider
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