Sebelius: Oops, my bad

By Jennifer J. Foster

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary-in-waiting, had some news for the Senate Finance Committee this week.

From Politico:

Calling it an “inadvertent omission,” Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius told senators Tuesday that her campaign and political action committee received almost $40,000 connected to a late-term abortion doctor — not $12,450 as she originally disclosed.

What?? Kathleen Sebelius lowballed her estimate of the amount of money she’s taken from her state’s—and the country’s—most infamous abortion provider?

I’m shocked—SHOCKED, I tell you!!

As it turns out, Sebelius actually got from Dr. George Tiller more than three times the original amount she reported to senators considering her nomination.

“I regret that there was an inadvertent omission in my previous response to this question,” Sebelius wrote in a revised response to the committee.

Suuuuuure she does.

“The oversight led to an incomplete listing of certain PAC contributions as well as contributions from Dr. Tiller’s business,“ she wrote.

“Incomplete”? Yeah, I’d say so.

You may remember a column I wrote about this when Sebelius became Obama’s gal for the HHS appointment in the wake of Tom Daschle’s departure from consideration due to tax issues.

For people who oppose abortion, there is no greater nemesis than Tiller, who has built his entire practice on the protection, promulgation and performance of late-term abortions. Tiller is the country’s foremost practioner of the heinous so-called partial-birth abortion procedure and proudly advertises that fact on his web site.

And it seems that Tiller has no greater friend in Kansas politics than Kathleen Sebelius. Her revision of these figures might not be such a big deal if she hadn’t—A. Insisted throughout that she is actually a moderate on the abortion issue (because, you know, she opposes it personally) and B. Vetoed on a consistent and continual basis over a period of years legislation that would regulate abortion.

I said a few weeks ago that Sebelius and Tiller’s symbiotic relationship is easy to understand: He kept the cash flowing for her elections and political activity, and she protected his business from the men and women of the Kansas Legislature.

By the way, as Politico notes, Tiller was acquitted last month in Kansas of misdemeanor charges stemming from performing late-term abortions, but he now faces a state medical board investigation.

President Obama has said that he’s interested in finding common ground on the abortion issue.

His nomination of Sebelius to the HHS post suggests that his interest is, at the most, a passing one.

New poll

By Jennifer J. Foster

I’ve set up a poll over on my Politics4All page where you can vote for the lamest story of the past week (see related post).

Check it out here!

Lamest stories of the week

By Jennifer J. Foster

There have been a lot of big stories this week—none bigger than the U.S. Navy Seals’ daring and dramatic rescue of an American captain held hostage by four Somali pirates.

(It didn’t turn out well for the pirates.)

But there were some lame stories this week, too. It seems that there is always someone, somewhere, willing to tell a useless story.

Here are three examples:

Bristol Palin’s ex-boyfriend/fiancee, Levi Johnston, went on the Tyra Banks Show last week to “dish” about, among other things, his sex life with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter. Tyra’s touted triumph was getting Levi to admit that he only used a condom “most of the time”—as if the birth of the couple’s son in December wasn’t clue enough. Get the Pulitzer people on the phone. Levi went on to insist that his whole reason for being there was to make the case that he isn’t “white trash.“ Well, Levi, here’s what losers do: They go on national television and talk trash about the mothers of their sons. If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... that’s right; you’re a loser. I feel bad for the little baby boy caught up in this mess.

The First Daughters finally get their long-promised puppy. It is bad enough to have to listen to President Obama’s detractors carp about how this may be the only campaign promise he actually keeps. But watching the White House Press Corps breathlessly report the breaking news about the dog (How did they decide on the Portuguese water dog? When will he arrive? Are they going to change his name? Was it REALLY a rescue dog? Is the president going to walk him?) was just painful. I know it’s a human interest story, but come on. It’s a dog.

Are they or aren’t they? Administration officials at Arizona State University awarding President Obama an honorary degree, that is. At first, they said no; he’s still in the early stages of his body of work, they said. But then a bunch of people got their hackles up and pointed out how none of the other universities were concerned about the body of work. So ASU caved, capitulated and even apologized. Why all the hullabaloo? It’s an HONORARY—read: symbolic—degree. It doesn’t mean anything. Plus, it’s free. Talk about much ado about nothing.

Have another nominee that was a big waste of air time, newsprint or web space? Tell me about it in comments below.