Former Oregon Governor John Kizhaber is thought of by a lot of people as the founder of the Oregon Health Plan, which although at one point was a great idea, has sadly fallen into disrepair because of lack of funding.
He is a smart, kind, thoughtful and intelligent man, who I think would represent our interests well.
I am a Deaniac and would love to see Howard Dean as HHS, but for a more mellow bipartisan and popular figure, I'd opt for Kitzhaber.
As far as his vetting goes, he didn't fill out the 7 page form, but he was never under any scandal and anyway...more below the fold.
Here is the wiki for John Kitzhaber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Here is his own page:
http://johnkitzhaber.org/
It would be so politically expedient on so many levels to have him as HHS. He's smart, he's had a lot of governmental expertise, he's passionate about the cause of reforming health care, he's genuinely nice, he's progressive, he comes from a western state, he's out of bipartisan politics.
What say you all?