Ehh, Dean is no more liberal than a DLCer, and being an MD doesn't necessarily mean he would bring anything special to the floor on national healthcare. Remember, doctors as a profession have been fighting national healthcare for more than half a century.

As for his previous time as gov of Vermont, he wasn't that liberal there, and the signature issue of gay rights was forced on him.

I think there's a translation problem-- "working well with Congress" actually means "able to intimidate Republicans". Rahm Emanuel can do this, it's not so obvious that Howard Dean can.

I like Dean a lot, but Republicans managed to make him look like a wacko in '04-- and that's a problem.

The partisan only matters if you are a Democrat. IOKIYAR. I start with the assumption that Barack Obama is not a stupid man and that he is going to piss off a bunch of the Dem netroots if Dean is not in a position that the netroots thinks is fit for him, once the Dems are done with their musical chairs. I am assuming Obama knows he's going to need these people in '10 and '12 and they aren't your average low information voters who are going to forget stuff that happened in 08/09. So, my conclusion is that he will find something that is befitting Dean.

It's not the Republicans in Congress who can't deal with a HHS Secretary Dean, it's the Democrats.

Dean was too right, too soon, on too many things -- beginning with Iraq, the nature of the GO P threat, and the direction in which the Party needed to move to start winning again -- to be palatable to the Dem caucuses on the Hill.

He'd be a daily, visible reminder of how they got it wrong, over and over again.

The permanent apparat of the party didn't want him for President, they didn't want him for DNC chair, they didn't want him -- period. The fact that a raving moderate like Dean got portrayed by members of his own party as Trotsky redivivus is all you need to know.

Dean is Banquo's ghost.

Make Dean ambassador to Iraq.

What better way to project the idea that Iraq is both important to the Obama administration and that the Obama administration is committed to getting out of Iraq.

Also, it's a nice way to balance appointing (or at least offering) Secretary of State to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dean focused on Iraq will keep him from meddling intentionally or unintentionally in Dem Party politics.

Also, it will broaden Dean's experience.

Given Dean's background and organizational skills, he might best be employed as leader of a grass-roots campaign (aka pressure group) supporting healthcare reform.

Some high-profile people with "M.D." after their names -- ideally, with experience as a primary care physician (which is what Dean was before going into politics) -- will be needed to rebut the "experts" that medical associations, insurance companies, etc., will trot out to oppose real reform.

If Dean were to mix lobbying with hands-on doctoring for people who can't afford medical care -- something already done, I believe, by former Sen. Bill Frist, a likely spokesman for opponents to healthcare reform -- all the better.

Dean is a very very smart guy with good instincts. Despite his medical background I don't think that health-care reform is necessarily his signature issue.

HHS may or may not be a good fit for his plans and talents.

Davis X has it exactly corrct. Of course it's the same dynamic with those who were right about Iraq are considered unserious candidates for anything to do with the military or foreign policy. Apparently there is nothing worse than to be proven right in American politics.

I'm going to digress from the thought-train of putting Dean in at HHS, and suggest something that---as far as I know---no one else seems to have explored.

First, let's examine Dr. dean's overall credentials:

1.) As a physician, he's an experienced member of the medical community.

2.) As a Governor, he demonstrated administrative and executive competence that is---quite literally---non-existent in the Bush administration.

3.) As "Top Kick" at DNC, he took a novel idea that was dismissed, lampooned, and expletive-deleted by most of the Dem hierarchy; an idea that required coalition-building and political aggressiveness that the Democratic Party seemed to have forgotten about, and brought into being a viable 50-State strategy that was predominantly diplomatic in nature, scope, and sequence, rather than the run-of-the-mill political banzai charges that usually appear every four years.

Given these assets, why not put Dean in at the U.N.? It would garner tons of political respect from the world-at-large; it would give the US a UN ambassador with political bona fides (as compared to the mustached moron that Bush put in there), it would show others that Obama is serious about going in a different direction, and it would be a positive growth-step for Dean himself....

OT - Your logo is terrible. Really blurry. It's just text!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/images/pa_logo_byline.gif

I have to think he'd be amazing at FEMA, a national or international volunteer network, or as head of a new civilian conservation corp.

I think they should ask him what he wants to do.

if it were up for a vote, howard dean would get my vote for head of HHS.

Health care providers -- doctors, hospitals -- are now allies in the push to insure everyone for healthcare. They want somebody to pay the bills for the work that they do. They do not want to be governmental employees, and they do not want to have to fight insurance companies for every dollar. I think what they would really like is a dumb single payer system which would unquestioningly and promptly spit out a check for every bill they received. Kind of like Medicare in the beginning.

My personal preference would be to see him return to Vermont and run for governor again

I'd like the VT Dems to try harder to find/groom a new generation of politicians. I would support Dean only as a candidate of last resort in the 2010 race.

"working well with Congress" actually means "able to intimidate Republicans".

For at least the first 2 years, the biggest problem will be Blue Dog Dems. I don't know if Dean would help on that front, though might feel indebted to him.

Dean deserves to be rewarded. But is there really so much reason to think that he wants that reward in the health care industry? Wasn't a balanced budget of importance to him as governor, too? Any senatorships open? Aren't there other cabinet positions that could help him toward I assume a likely goal of wanting some day to run again for president?

I will take calls for "bipartisanship" more seriously if and when these calls can be shown, in any material way, to constrain conservative as well as liberal behavior.

I also would remind Obama that - while outreach can have its merits - nevertheless bloggers, the "liberal base," need to be reached out to as much as anyone else and can not more be expected to stand idly by than any other element of society when their concerns are ignored.

Finally, while ideological extremism can indeed by a vice, "centrism" can likewise merely mean equivocation. That also is a vice.

Dean’s is a good partisan background!

In regards to HHS secretary... Former Governor Kitzhaber (Oregon) has the same qualifications as Dean: medical doctor, reformed healthcare in Oregon, etc... He's currently spearheading an initiative to improve on the current Health Care Industry.

Kitzhaber is an 'unknown' on the national level, but that might be what Obama is looking for. Knowledge, expertise, passion for the challenge, and being able to get things done.

and.... he's interested in the position.

Deserved or not, Dean has a reputation for being partisan, and as another commenter mentioned, the GOP successfully painted him as a wacko. He's controversial in some segments of the Dems as well. I can't imagine that either the GOP or Blue Dog Dems will work with him. I think he did an outstanding job as DNC chair and should be rewarded for that (I signed the petition thanking him for his work), but I think Obama's views on who should be HHS secretary are correct, and Dean's not a good fit.

NY pols probably won't go for this but since Hillary got elected from NY as did RFK, if Hillary does decide to take SOS maybe they should appoint Dean to the Senate. He is originally from NY and went to school in NY. I'm not sure Dean is really suited to be part of a group decision making body like the Senate. I think he's a better executive.

I honestly thought Hillary might be offered the HHS Dept. spot, as health care reform was/is her "passion." I like Dean very much, but I think she'd be better. However, why not offer him the Deputy Secy. position in HHS? I was surprised about Hillary being considered for SOS. I think Richardson would be more appropriate. A variety of experience (including diplomatic) and far less a hawk than Hillary.

Dean [...] spent his Washington career trying to thin the ranks of congressional Republicans [...] -- Cummings/Politico

At least she gives him credit for that. Contrary to what Phantom said (in the Lieberman/Kirchick thread below), the "Rahm Emanuel engineered the Dem takeover of Congress" "song" is being sung all over the place, not just by The New Republic. I've seen the same idea at least twice before, including the NYT. The totally off-key, dissonant notes of that "song" have been irritating my shell-pink, delicate ears for over a week now.

It would be a fortuitous day were Obama to ask Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, “Mr. Dean…What about the Abenaki?�

I’m certain the sinking pit Mr. Dean would get in his stomach could not be hidden by his poker face.
Civil Rights means not putting up with racism. There’s no place in a fair and decent administration for anyone who has so actively waged a campaign against such a trodden minority.

I hope a reporter asks Obama (before he hands out jobs) if he has any idea about Dean’s historical mistreatment of these people.

Google Dean Abenaki

It all comes back to the Dean/Rahm fight in 2006.

Rahm is apparently still carrying a grudge and can't admit that Dean was right about the 50 state strategy.

Yea we wouldn't want to reward the man who took back the house and almost took back the Senate and set the DNC back on firm financial footing. Because the rethugs might not like it. Jebus what a party.

If you build up the party they don't want you around. See what Dean should have been doing is palling around with John McCain talking down "The Marxist Socialist Barack Hussein Obama who doesn't put his country first" then the Congressional Dems and Obama would have been begging him to stay in the Democratic Party and negotiating with him on which position they could offer him which would make him happy.

Chief of Staff isn't really expected to be non-partisan, so Rahm is an apple to Dean's orange.

Holding up any Bush employee as an example counters your previous blog entry about "Do you want to end up like Bush?"

I liked the idea but this is a pretty good point.
I'm a Deaniac, but maybe HHS is NOT a good idea.

Not as though I expect Dean to go begging, so this would not be a crushing blow, even assuming he was interested.

Google Dean Abenaki

Did. In 2004. Worked for him anyways. As did at least one Micmac and one Passamaquoddy, because I phonebanked with them in Portland before the caucuses. And they knew Mary Beth Williams, and read Wampum.wabenaki.net, and still worked for him.

There are plenty of doctors who support single payer and care a great deal about the failure of this health care system to care adequately for the entire citizenry. People who claim that doctors are of one mind about this are ignorant. The biggest barrier to a national health care system are the insurance companies. The insurance system is set up to DENY care at all costs. (You'll notice the VA followed that private model in finding ways to delay or outright deny care to Iraq war veterans.) Moreover, there is a huge difference between doctors in glamor medicine and doctors in primary care who deal with the chronically ill and the sickest patients. My husband is a doctor in a completely non-glamorous position and he deals daily with a huge caseload of very sick people; he is strongly for single-payer and so are all of his colleagues. People who are not in the medical field should resist making sweeping statements about how doctors do or do not feel because YOU DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW HOW THEY FEEL.