“Tiller’s Governor” Kathleen Sebelius Obama’s Pick For HHS

No surprise, says Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey:

Sebelius makes a lot of sense for Obama, for several reasons.  She is pro-abortion, but still managed to get elected in a normally Republican state, showing that she has the kind of political skills that Obama can use in his Cabinet — and that Kansas Democrats will sorely miss once she’s gone.  She had much more experience at health-care management than Tom Daschle, without the baggage of being a lobbyist in the industry.

Sebelius isn’t just your average, run of the mill pro-abortion Democrat, though. She has twice vetoed legislation that would have regulated abortion clinics. And she’s known by Kansas pro-lifers as “Tiller’s Governor” because of the tens of thousands of dollars she’s accepted in donations from  the infamous late term abortionist .

You can read some of the horror stories from women who have elected to have  late term abortions provided by Tiller, here.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (center) poses in the Governor’s Mansion with George Tiller and his wife Jeanne.

The above picture was taken at a lavish party Sebelius held at the Governor’s mansion in Tiller’s honor.

While under investigation by the Attorney General’s office and amid increasing calls for criminal charges by the Kansas Legislature, late-term abortionist George R. Tiller and his entire abortion clinic staff was honored by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius at a lavish secret party held at Cedar Crest, the Governor’s mansion in early April, 2007.

Operation Rescue was the first to uncover evidence of this event, which was mentioned in Robert Novak’s Washington Post column on Monday. OR obtained a set of 27 photographs from a confidential source that told OR the party was held exclusively in Tiller’s honor. Tiller and his staff were the only guests invited to the gala event that featured, according to the source, a menu of steak and lobster.

Last May, while  Sebelius was a contender for the V.P. spot on Obama’s ticket, she was chastised for receiving communion by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, KS.

Her pro-choice stance prompted Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, KS to write to her in August of last year, to ask that she please refrain from taking communion until she repudiates her support for abortion rights. Sebelius didn’t, and the Archbishop has apparently heard about it.

He said it prompted him to write her again, asking her to respect his request and “not require from me any additional pastoral actions.”The Archbishop …also criticized her recent veto of a bill imposing new restrictions on abortion providers. He called upon the governor, who is Catholic, to take the “necessary steps for amendment of her life.”

She made the news again, later in the fall with her bizarre, race-baiting answer to a  question at a town hall meeting for Obama:

“Have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African-American?” Sebelius asked in response to a question about why the election is so close. “That may be a factor. All the code language, all that doesn’t show up in the polls. And that may be a factor for some people.”

The remark, delivered in the governor’s low key, folksy, out-from-behind-the-podium style, raised a couple chuckles but few eyebrows in the downtown Iowa City crowd, but Republicans took offense and responded in short order.

Obama’s selection of  Sebelius comes right on the heels of the Kansas budget standoff that was big news earlier this week:

The state resumed processing income tax refunds on Wednesday — they had been suspended last week because of low funds — and state employees’ paychecks will be paid on time Friday, Department of Administration spokesman Gavin Young said.

Republicans earlier this week denied the Democratic governor’s request to move the money, saying they could not approve the certificate of indebtedness, also known as internal borrowing, until they knew the state could repay the money by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.

However, Republicans said they would be likely to approve the internal borrowing if Sebelius agreed to the Legislature’s proposed budget cuts for the 2009 fiscal year. On Wednesday, she approved about $300 million in budget cuts.

“She blinked, and that’s helpful,” Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, a Republican, said Wednesday.

All in all, she seems a perfect match for the profoundly pro- abortion , fiscally irresponsible , race-baiting Obama administration.