Pete Rouse? Nancy Kassebaum? The lady who used to be Bob Dole's health advisor before Rush Limbaugh got her fired in 1994?

Wyden?

Zeke Emanuel? As in, Rahm's brother?

"Dean and Obama have a poor relationship. Obama didn't keep Dean at the DNC, and he didn't even put Dean on the stage when he announced Gov. Tim Kaine to replace him."

Unless you have other reporting to back up this first sentence, you are drawing way too many conclusions based on shoddy reasoning. Obama didn't keep Dean as DNC chair because the party committees essentially function as an arm of the White House when the party wins the presidency. So, Obama went with his team and a loyalist (Kaine) as party chair. Keeping around an aggressively independent dude as chair when you're in the White House would have been frankly bizarre.

"So: Who should succeed Tom Daschle?"

Doesn't matter. Someone with a pleasantly shiny surface.

The bill is already ready to roll.

The Congressional liaison can be handled out of the Chief of Staff's office.

All that matters is taking Daschle out of the loop, and that's been done.

Ezra used "interface" as a verb and thus he fails at life

What about Blanche Lincoln? She's on Senate Finance, has a Democratic governor, and can bring a mother's perspective to health reform...

Unless you have other reporting to back up this first sentence, you are drawing way too many conclusions based on shoddy reasoning.

That Dean and Obama have a poor relationship is widely perceived to be the case. The failure to invite Dean to the press conference introducing Kaine was seen by Dean's allies as a slap in the face, even if it wasn't intended as such.

From what I understand, the relationship b/w Dean and Obama is really less of a "bad" relationship than it is a non-relationship. What I've heard is that it's Emanuel who really hates Dean.

How about Wyden? He has been a Senator for 12 years and a house member before that. He knows the issue. His governor is a Democrat.

John Kerry. He's pretty close to Obama, he's on the subcommittee for healthcare, he obviously wants out of his current job, and I think he could work pretty effectively at moving forward with the groundwork that Daschle had set up. Plus this might also mean finally giving Barney Frank a promotion (which he seemed pretty excited about in 2004 but may or may not take now that his power in the House has grown so significantly).

Health care at this point, needs to be RESTRUCTURED and built from the ashes upward, just like the banking system.

Throwing big money around and shifting around the political players in the system won't work.

The system of HEALTH needs to be about health fundamentallly. It is not about suppressive drugs that are band-aids, propping people up from the dreaded death, which BTW is the ultimate healing for most of us.

Good food, fresh air, sunshine, excercise, support and above all LOVE are a major part of the Rx. Whatever healing modality is used, the ROOT of the ailment must be addressed. Suppression of synptoms only ultimately leads to more suffering - the WHOLE person must be addressed, because it is the WHOLE person that is ill.

"Energetic" medicine like acupuncture, EFT, and homeopathy must be promoted in our hospitals for real healing to flourish.

And yes, it is the UNSEEN that is really important and it is the HEART that really sees - not the lab reports or the high tech investigations and scans.

Get back to the basics and common sense.

How many irreplaceable (or near irreplaceable) people are there anyway? Seems to be a lot of them in Obama's nominations. My adrenaline is getting too much of a workout following all this. Too many political blogs. I need to get to the gym.

Mike Enzi. Ranking member on HELP; Democratic governor.

Ezra, Noam Scheiber over at TNR suggests Ron Wyden. Would he be a good choice, notwithstanding the fact that his plan is fairly different from Obama's?

The main issue I'd have with that is that at this point, Obama's kind of raiding the Senate - though Wyden would likely be replaced by a Dem (special election req. in Oregon, I believe) - he might not be (Gordon Smith comeback?). And would losing Wyden's voice mean losing an important ally on Capital Hill?

What about John Podesta or - I'm blanking at the moment - the author of the CAP plan that the Clinton/Edwards/Obama plans were all based on?

Arkansas is not an easy state for Democrats to hold (Obama lost there) so I wouldn't want to loose Blanche Lincoln.

Oregon has a special election requirement? Then Wyden won't work. I think Podesta would be OK, not sure if he has much experience with congress. There is also Peter Orszag, but he might be to much of a wonk.

Donna Shalala maybe?

The failure to invite Dean to the press conference introducing Kaine was seen by Dean's allies as a slap in the face, even if it wasn't intended as such.

What else would it be? Someone just forgot?

I like Claire McCaskill as the WH point person. Her takedown on Wall Street is the kind of plain talk cut-through-the-bullshit person needed to get the 'interests' in line.

Some Med. Center executive for HHS Secy.

We don't need an idea person in the WH or HHS - we need someone to kick ass and get the troops lined up.

Heck, make it Michelle. What with all the tax/nanny crap, and the GOP voting in lockstep against the President's budget initiatives, I'm already having serious 1993 deja vu anyway.

Elizabeth Edwards. just a thought.

What about Ted Kennedy? It would keep him front and center on Heatlh Care and give us more Senatorial Appointment fun!

John Edwards has the qualifications, but he no longer commands any respect. I don't think Elizabeth Edwards knows Congress well enough.

How about Bill Bradley?

I hear Blago's looking for work these days...

Rahmbo's the one who really hates Dean. Unfortunately, Rahmbo carries too much weight with Obama -- which is why he's already survived some boo-boos that would have sent other persons back home.

My dream is for Rahm to finally make one gigantic, unforgivable faux pas -- a week after Tom Geoghegan wins his old IL-05 seat. Obama's cutting loose Daschle has shown he's willing to ditch even old, loyal and helpful allies and friends if they become troublesome; if he can dump Daschle, he sure can dump Rahmie-kins.

Bill Clinton.

Good food, fresh air, sunshine, excercise, support and above all LOVE are a major part of the Rx. Whatever healing modality is used, the ROOT of the ailment must be addressed. Suppression of synptoms only ultimately leads to more suffering - the WHOLE person must be addressed, because it is the WHOLE person that is ill. "Energetic" medicine like acupuncture, EFT, and homeopathy must be promoted in our hospitals for real healing to flourish.

Take a shower hippie

Phil Bredesen?

"Energetic" medicine like acupuncture, EFT, and homeopathy must be promoted in our hospitals for real healing to flourish.

And geodes! Geodes have lots of healing power! You're definitely right that patients need more electronic funds transfers, too.

And yes, it is the UNSEEN that is really important and it is the HEART that really sees - not the lab reports or the high tech investigations and scans.

Wait, I'm confused, you're saying that the heart doesn't matter? If the heart seens, and what is unseen is the really important stuff, then... But isn't it the heart that does all the feeling and loving you're talking about?

More generally, why do you hate science?

You neglect to note that one of the reasons people want Dean is that, unlike Kitzhaber and some others, Dean *succeeeded* in driving a major health care reform through his state legislature when he was Governor, and the results have been extremely positive and stood the test of time.

Who else is available for the job, who has done that?

Circumstantial evidence that perhaps Dean and Obama aren't good friends, is not sufficient reason to write him off.

crack: Kennedy isn't going to get it because of his health problems, otherwise he'd probably have been a good choice. However, no Senatorial appointment fun even if he does: Here in Massachusetts we changed the law five years ago, such that if a Senate seat is vacant, we hold a special election.

why not an Ezra/Petey team to HHS? Ezra is the public face who meets with all the wonks and does the pr while Petey toils in the shadows off Constitution Ave using his repertoire of dark arts