Nashville News Blog

Politico reports this evening on the burgeoning backlash against the very real possibility that President Obama might appoint Phil Bredesen to lead his ambitious health-care reform efforts. While the governor and press secretary Lydia Lenker keep dismissing all the buzz as mere media speculation, sources say Bredesen's a top candidate. By some accounts, the choice has come down to Bredesen or Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Update: In Washington, Sebelius meets with Obama adviser.

The discussions are apparently about to reach a new level. A source tells Politico that Bredesen and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have swapped voicemails. The White House is taking a "hard look," the source says.

That the governor is a serious candidate should be obvious from the level of vitriol directed his way by liberal health-care advocates. A sampling:

"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. "This is a guy whose single greatest health care achievement is stripping 200,000 people of health care coverage in Tennessee - a move that was not only bad policy but an unconscionable act."

Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said if Obama named Bredesen to head HHS, it would create "a firestorm" and lead to "enormous confusion and anger among the very people you need to help get health care reform enacted. Gov. 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."

Politico reports "so far, the criticism has not knocked Bredesen from the ranks of the oft-mentioned." But it's hard to imagine that Bredesen can overcome such strong opposition from the interest groups whose support Obama will need to reform health care.