Nerve Endings Firing Away

After the Tom Daschle debacle, Obama named Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius as the nominee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services. But of course, being the opposition party that is today, some factions of the conservative party are gearing up to contest her nomination. Their opposition is almost laughable; she is a Catholic and she support abortions. Mind you, she is not in the running for Pope but a bureaucrat position in a country where abortion is legal. Also, she is a Democrat where people supporting abortion is not too uncommon. Does that fact that she is a Catholic change anything? We already have had a President who accidentally confessed that he was doing god’s work by waging an unpopular war. We all know how that went. When religious dogma trumps rational policy making, the results are never good so in fact we should be thankful that Sibelius can separate her personal faith from her duties as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The conservative groups say, she is “the most rabidly pro-abortion governor” in the country [source]. I’ve never understood how anyone can be labeled pro-abortion when in fact, such a position on abortion is clearly seen as pro-choice. We do not actively hunt down pregnant mothers and abort their babies laughing gleefully. We offer a choice to the mother who as conservatives will agree that an individual is best suited to make a decision on their health. If she chooses to have the baby as teen mom Bristol Palin in Alaska did, great! If not, we understand that too.

Anyway, it seems that the opposition to Kathleen Sibelius is already diffused with Kansas Senator and evolution-denier Sam Brownback along with other Kansas Republicans Sen. Pat Roberts and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole endorsing her. Partly the reasons may be to get her out of the way for the Senate race in 2010. But it is a slap to the religious conservatives nevertheless.