MOVEON.ORG COMES OUT AGAINST BREDESEN.

From the inbox:

How can you tell who's a real health care champion? We need someone who's going to support visionary progressive health care reform; someone with a track record of standing up to the insurance and pharmaceutical giants at the heart of our health care crisis; someone who is 100 percent committed to giving every single American the choice of a public health insurance plan so we're not at the mercy of the private insurance companies (just as Obama promised).

Obama is reportedly considering several governors and a few senators. Many of these folks would be great, but at least one would be a bad choice for health care reform: Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen made his fortune acquiring and running HMOs. As governor, he gutted Tennessee's public health insurance program, causing more than 320,000 people to lose their health insurance. And Bredesen let the private insurance industry pay for his multi-million dollar redecoration of the governor's mansion.

They've even got a petition. All that said, it's hard not to wonder whether the advocacy isn't so caught up opposing the candidate they don't want that they're missing the opportunity to coalesce around the candidate they do want. In part, that may be because no other HHS candidate has strong or obvious support. Everyone seems to wish for Podesta, expect Sebelius, and be interested in DeLauro. But there's little advocacy around these candidates or discussion around their merits. When Daschle withdrew, as I reported at the time, no one had a Plan B. That was understandable. But it's perhaps a credit to his unique set of talents that in the week since, no one has come up with much of a Plan B, either.