The latest rumor from Ambinder (who was pushing the "offal" choice of Phil Bredesen for a couple of days) is that Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-3; 10-termer; 65 years old, Female, Italian ethnicty) is now under consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services. This actually makes some sense.
DeLauro has the health care chops; she knows the issues cold. She is personally close to the two men who will lead healthcare through the Senate, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd, for whom she served as chief of staff at one point. Oh, and the chief of staff to President Obama lives in her basement.
She is married to well known Democratic party (Clinton-associated, duh) Pollster/Strategist Stan Greenberg.
She is serving her tenth term and sits on the influential House Appropriations and Budget Committees. She serves as chairwoman of the Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Subcommittee and as a member of the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education and Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittees; Assistant to the Democratic Leader by her colleagues, making her the second highest ranking Democratic woman in the House of Representatives; co-chair of the House Steering and Policy Committee since 2002.
According to VoteSmart:
Education:
MA, International Politics, Columbia University, 1966
BA, Marymount College, 1964
Attended, London School of Economics, Queen Mary College,1962-1963.
Professional Experience:
Executive Director, EMILY'S List, 1989-1990
Executive Director, Countdown '87, 1987-1988
Chief of Staff, Senator Christopher Dodd, 1980-1987
Executive Assistant, New Haven Development Administration, 1977-1978
Executive Assistant, New Haven Mayor Frank Louge, 1976-1977.
Caucuses/Non-Legislative Committees:
Congressional Child Care Caucus
Co-Founder, Congressional Food Safety Caucus
Democratic Homeland Security Task Force
Co-Chair, Democratic Steering Committee
National Guard and Reserve Components Congressional Members Organization.
Committees:
Appropriations, Member
Budget, Member
Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Chair
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Member
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Member
According to OpenSecrets:
Top 5 Contributors, 2007-2008
United Technologies $14,600
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $13,000
Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Assoc $10,600
American Assn of Crop Insurers $10,000
American Assn of Orthopaedic Surgeons $10,000
Top 5 Industries, 2007-2008
Health Professionals $112,246
Lobbyists $76,400
Crop Production & Basic Processing $62,000
Lawyers/Law Firms $52,800
Public Sector Unions $46,000
According to GovTrack her voting record is very liberal overall, arguably to the left of John Conyers and Denis Kucinich, and similar to Hilda Solis. She is listed as a member of the Progressive Caucus membership.
However: She is a NOT among the 93 co-sponsors of HR-676, even though most of the Progressive Caucus, and many Representatives ostensibly to her right by overall voting record, are.
Notably, nobody from Connecticut, a state where the insurance industry plays a large role, is a co-sponsor of HR-676. Also that listing of the Orthopedic Surgeons group among her leading contributers is kind of a potential red flag for me. They are a very conservative and selfish organization, and played a role in undercutting AHRQ's attempt to institionalized evidenced-based medicine a few years ago.
Her husband Stan Greenberg has in the past been a big proponet of promoting the Democrats as the true populists. However his recent corporate clients include BP, Boeing, Monsanto, Converse, and (ugh) United HealthCare and the Business Roundtable. Greenberg is a co-founder with James Carville and Bob Shrum of Democracy Corps.
Of House members, I'd certainly prefer the names floated by The Nation's Washington correspondent John Nichols, those being Washnington's Jim McDermott or Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin.
And PNHP, other single payer advocates and other progressive health care folks are still promoting Dr. Marcia Angell or Dr. David Satcher.
But we could do worse. Much worse.
Update: I should clarify that this is in effect a follow-up to my diary covering a long list of rumored names on Thursday Feb 5 and one on why Dean was so-so on Wed Feb 4. Rep. DeLauro had not come across my radar then. This seems to be new name being floated, perhaps after the terrible idea of Gov. Bredesen got some pushback.