Tennessee: Bredesen says health secretary post a ‘low-probability thing’

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday the chances of President Barack Obama nominating him for U.S. Health and Human Services secretary are low.

“I’m not taking my name out of consideration,” Gov. Bredesen told reporters. “I’m proud to be considered. But I do think it’s a relatively low-probability thing.”

Ever since his name was mentioned as a possible candidate for the post, liberal groups have pounded away the governor’s history of making cuts to TennCare, the state’s version of Medicare.

He said the ferocity of the attacks has “been startling to me. You have a spotlight shined on you and then come along and get mugged and then the spotlight goes away.”

The position came open after former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle recently withdrew his name following a controversy over his unpaid taxes. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, according to news accounts, is the front runner for the position.

The Obama White House did not return telephone calls on the topic.

Gov. Bredesen has come under fierce attack from liberal health care activists as well as the liberal political group, MoveOn.org, over his cuts to TennCare. About 320,000 enrollees have been cut and a number of benefits reduced in the program since 2005.

Advocates long have maintained the cuts were unnecessary and that the governor refused to work with them. But Gov. Bredesen said the program economically was unsustainable and charges it was the advocates who refused to help him make less draconian cuts.

Gov. Bredesen said, “I guess the plus of somebody like me is you’ve sort of been there and had some scars and been involved in these things. The minus is certainly you’ve been there and you got some scars and you certainly make some enemies in the process.”