Howard Dean, MD, for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Rec if you agree

[Corkey Mineola]

Give the guy some credit and some tangible reward.

[rateyes]

1. He'd be good, but I like him where he is.

[cali]

2. Howard has made it about as clear as possibly could be that he is out of there

he doesn't want to stay on. He said 4 years ago he's only stay for one term. He's said repeatedly over the last year that he has no interest whatsoever in staying on. He's made it clear that he wants HHS. The DNC job under a dem president takes his/her orders directly from the WH and Dean has said that's particlularly unappealing to him.

[tblue37]

15. Well, if it's what he wants, he should definitely get it. He deserves that and more. nt

[Auggie]

4. Me too

[sandnsea]

3. Yes.

I was going to say that the other day but I couldn't remember what HHS stood for. :silly: He is exactly who I want in that position.

[Corkey Mineola]

7. Cool! Public Health has suffered so much in the Bush Junta

It will take a long time to survey the full damage.
But we need an activist Secretary to get things moving again, and fast.

One idea: legalize needle exchange NOW! It was proved to work 15 years ago but Clinton put the cabash on it.

[Oak2004]

5. Absolutely no

AS governor he attempted, in the name of controlling drug abuse, to cut Medicaid recipients off of pain management.

He's been a good DNC chair, and I'm sure he'll be good elsewhere. But he does not belong anywhere in a position where he can take his anti-drug grandstanding out on poor people in severe pain.

[cali]

8. oh fucking please.

Howard Dean was truly good on extending health care here- and not just for children. And not just treatment, but also prevention. As for your broad and vaguely dishonest accusation, the ONLY drug he tried to manage, was OxyContin. I'm not sure I agree with him, but it was hardly some broad attempt to cut off pain medication for poor people.

"Dean suggested that doctors find substitutes for OxyContin and that pharmacies remove it from their shelves. He said his state won't pay for the drug unless patients have terminal cancer or sickle cell anemia."

http://opioids.com/oxycodone/opiophobia.html

[Lyric]

12. I have family members who need that drug to manage severe pain

but who do not have terminal cancer or sickle cell anemia. My Mom, for example, has severe chronic pain due to tissue and nerve damage caused by her aortic bypass surgery and her chemotherapy. She survived the cancer (8+ years cancer-free) and the operation, but the pain has settled in for good. She took other pain medications for the first couple of years, but a "tolerance" inevitably developed, and she needs much stronger medicine to live a functional life now. She's on Medicaid. If she had lived in Vermont, Dean would have taken away the only pain medication that worked for her.

I'm a Medicaid patient too, and let me tell you from experience--poor people on Medicaid have one hell of a hard time getting ANY pain medication. I was once denied any pain medication stronger than ibuprofen for a severe spinal disc herniation. Why? I suffered horribly for weeks during the "acute" period directly after the injury occurred, and wound up with a bleeding stomach from taking enormous amounts of ibuprofen in an attempt to find some relief. I have always suspected that this happened because I was/am a Medicaid patient, and obviously poor. Not all doctors are like this, but an alarming number of them tend to assume that poor people on Medicaid are more likely to fake pain in order to get pills that they can then go sell.

Some doctors are so suspicious of poor patients that we are given "naproxen" (which is basically Aleve) instead of any kind of narcotic meds for conditions that are OBVIOUSLY painful and easily verifiable via x-ray or CT scan--like kidney stones. I had this fight the last time I had a kidney stone attack. They gave me a shot of Dilaudid in the ER, which was fine, but tried to send me home to finish passing the stone with what amounted to freaking Aleve. You wouldn't believe the prejudice and suspicion of poor people within the medical community.

There is a serious problem with this. I don't think it necessarily disqualifies Dean from the post, but his stance was absolutely 100% wrong. For the sake of people who suffer--both from pain and from poverty--the biased denial of strong pain medications to poor patients needs to be addressed by the medical community and the government. The "War on Drugs" has many, many victims; far too many of them are poor people with legitimate medical needs.

[Irishonly]

23. Chemo is a bitch

I am also on pain management and the public needs to be educated as most have no clue what living with chronic pain is like. No one likes taking the medication.

I survived almost a year of aggressive chemo and it saved my life. It also caused a myriad of health problems that won't ever go away. I survived the cancer but became disabled. All of my pain medications have a do not refill before such and such a date. I am lucky in that I have a wonderful doctor. I am more lucky that I also receive Reiki treatments for free.

[gorbal]

6. He did alot of good things for Vermont.

He's good a balancing a budget too...don't forget that.

[tavalon]

9. Nope, I want him right where he is

That man saved the Democratic party.

[cali]

10. you want him to do something he doesn't want to do?

I'm amazed how many DUers feel the way you do. I think it's rather sad.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. I say let him have HHS if he wants it.

We're going to need somebody who not only understands the issues, but has the capacity for innovative, broad-gauge thinking in pushing through a workable national health care plan. I hadn't even thought about HHS yet, but I believe this would be a great idea. The more I think about it, the better it seems.

[Smarmie Doofus]

13. Pretty much whatever he wants, says I. nt

[BlueMTexpat]

18. Amen to that!

Anything he wants! Anywhere he wants!

Our debt to Howard Dean is limitless. :toast:

[tblue37]

14. I would hate to lose this brilliant man as head of the Democratic National Committee.

While there, he created the foundation that led not only to Obama's victory, but also to our many victories and even the close calls in a number of states that have been red forever. I'd love to see him in a more prestigious position, but his talents are so valuable where he is!

[cali]

16. What part of Howard Dean doesn't want to stay on do people here

have such a hard time with? He doesn't want to stay on. He's made that about as clear as is humanly possible.

[tblue37]

17. We didn't know that. As I say in another post, if HHS is what he wants, he should

definitely get it--and I only wish there were a way to give him even more, since he deserves so much gratitude from the party and the nation!

[madfloridian]

19. Tom Daschle wants the job. Now that the 50 state staffers are going..

it seems to me that the insiders won. I have read several snips lately that Daschle "fits in" with this group better. May be wrong.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/11/07/50-state-strategy-being-killed-by-letting-the-organizers-go/

"A rumor at this point (or rather, someone unwilling to go on record) but what I'm hearing is that the DNC organizers who implement the 50 state strategy are about to be let go. Apparently they will be laid off at the end of the month, and the new DNC chair will decide whether he or she wants to continue the 50 state policy.

Of course, there's no better way to kill the program than to let the organizers go. With them will go all the experience, a lot of the contacts and most of the trust. And many of them won't be available to be rehired.

I have no idea who made this decision, especially immediately after a year where the 50 state strategy seems to have payed off with wins in places Dems don't ordinarily win.

It is worth noting, however, that the 50 state strategy's biggest opponent, for years has been Rahm Emanuel. Rahm's new job? Chief of Staff. Wonder if Obama's ok with this?"

I posted about it last night, but no one got the significance.

From Open Left:

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9800

Chris speaks about the sad outcome of Darcy Burner's campaign. And the staffers of the 50 state plan.

If the organizers get re-hired after Obama selects the new DNC chair, then he believes in the fifty state strategy. If they don't get re-hired, then the only fifty state strategy Obama believed in was the one for his own campaign. I'm strongly hoping it is the former, but Emanuel really was the strongest opponent of the fifty-state strategy.

[Historic NY]

20. Surgeon- General Dr. Howard Dean

[cali]

21. Stupid idea. What a waste that would be. It's chiefly ceremonial.

Dean is an organizational wiz who knows how to successfully run large organizations and who has actually enacted healthcare reform and innovative programs. There is no one more qualified to be HHS sec.

[Historic NY]

24. its been marginalized by * but is the highest Public Health policy official

he could come in handy in promoting the administrations health care initiatives. Ie; stem cell research, prescription drugs, hiv, cancer research, etc..ect. Somehow we had gone off track on what counts.

[LWolf]

22. That, or surgeon general. nt

[greeneyedboy]

25. I wish he'd stay, but if not, definitely a Cabinet position. n/t

[BrightKnight]

26. He is a perfect fit where he is. - n/t