Sebelius: Oops, my bad

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: April 16, 2009

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.