President Obama made it official today: Democratic Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Sebelius, 60, has been governor since 2002. For eight years prior to that, she served as her state's insurance commissioner, winning kudos for blocking an insurance company merger that she said would have raised health premiums for consumers.

"Kathleen Sebelius has a remarkable intellect, unquestioned integrity, and the kind of pragmatic wisdom you’ll tend to find in a Kansan," Obama said in announcing the appointment. "I know she will bring some much-needed grace and good humor to Washington, and she will be a tremendous asset to my cabinet."

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, whose name was mentioned as a possible choice to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) soon after Pres. Barack Obama was elected, may take the helm there after all. The Democrat, an early supporter of Obama, is said to be his top pick for the post now that his original selection, Tom Daschle, is out of the picture following a tax controversy.

Sebelius, her state’s former health commissioner, has emerged as the frontrunner, unidentified White House officials tell today’s New York Times. The Politico reports that she’s “a leading candidate” for the job – a characterization similar to one the Associated Press made earlier this month, when it said she was “near the top” of Obama’s list.

Who will President Obama pick as health secretary to replace first choice Tom Daschle, who bowed out after being hit for failing to pay more than $120,000 in taxes?

Not sure, say news reports, noting that the new administration was so certain the former South Dakota senator – a close Obama adviser and friend —- had the job wrapped up that there were no other names on the table. “There was no Plan B,” senior Obama adviser David Axelrod tells the New York Times today. “Our intent was that he would serve.”

The Times and The New Republic quote Democratic sources as saying that the administration is considering several Democratic governors for the post. Among them: Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, an early Obama supporter and previously her state’s insurance commissioner, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, and former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was an emergency room doctor.

Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination as health secretary today following growing criticism of his failure to pay more than $120,000 in taxes, according to published reports. At least two newspapers, The New York Times today and The Wall Street Journal yesterday, ran editorials calling for the former South Dakota senator and minority leader to step aside.

Pres. Obama named Daschle as his pick to head up the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on December 11. He was a close advisor to Obama throughout the presidential campaign, and advocated for more expansive health coverage, especially for the estimated 47 million Americans without insurance.

President-elect Barack Obama today named a tobacco-control advocate deputy health chief and is reportedly poised to tap his campaign tech advisor to head the Federal Communications Commission. 

Pending the Senate's nod, William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, will become former Sen. Tom Daschle's No. 2 at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Corr, a health adviser on the Obama transition team, was Daschle’s chief counsel and policy director from 1998 to 2000, when the South Dakota Democrat served as Senate minority leader. Corr also served as chief of staff for Clinton administration HHS secretary Donna Shalala.
 
“Reforming our health care system will be a top priority of my administration and key to putting our economy back on track,” Obama said today in announcing the pick  “Under the leadership of Tom Daschle and Bill Corr, I am confident that my Department of Health and Human Services will bring people together to reach consensus on how to move forward with health care reform.”

President-elect Barack Obama has tapped former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health, the Associated Press is reporting.

The soft-spoken Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat who served in the Senate from 1986 until his surprising defeat in 2004, urged Obama to make a run for the White House and was a close adviser during his campaign. He heads Obama's healthcare policy group and penned a book published in February, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis. Daschle argues in the book that the U.S. must make healthcare available to everyone; an estimated 47 million Americans have no health coverage, including about nine million children.