Gov. Deval Patrick Should Nominate Dr. Atul Gawande As Interim U.S. Senator

[ccharles000]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/18/gawande-for-senate/

the Massachusetts state senate is expected to pass legislation giving Gov. Deval Patrick the authority to appoint a temporary successor to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. The interim appointee would serve until the Jan. 19 special election.

Clearly, whomever Gov. Patrick decides to appoint will have a significant role to play in the health care debate over the coming months. It is for that reason we at the Center for American Progress Action Fund believe that Dr. Atul Gawande would be best choice for the job.

Dr. Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, and has written extensively on medicine for The New Yorker. An articulate and eloquent speaker on health matters, Dr. Gawande is a former Rhodes Scholar, a MacArthur Fellow, and unquestionably one of the nation’s leading health policy experts.

President Obama has told his staff that Dr. Gawande’s writings are “required reading” in the White House. Dr. Gawande has written extensively on sustaining health care reform and lowering health care costs over the long term. He previously worked for Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, and he served on Clinton Health Care Task Force.

[hobbit709]

1. You realize of course that the nutjobs would blow several gaskets.

[T Wolf]

3. For that alone, itwould be good to see. I usually agree with CAP, so putting a good person

in office, if only for 3-4 months, would be a bonus.

We'll see who they come up with with.

[WI_DEM]

2. No, for a short term senator like this it should be Mike Dukakis

who has the experience and prestige as a former governor and presidential nominee. If the doctor is interested in the job he should jump into the special election. Whoever is nominated short-term is not going to run in the special election in January.

[DaveinMD]

4. no on anyone that worked for Jim Cooper

that guy was the person most responsible for killing Clinton's health reform and he's trying to do the same thing with this attempt at reform.