“Health Secretary Resigns After Woes of HealthCare.gov,” Obama house organ the New York Times reports in a breaking story
Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Obama accepted Ms. Sebelius’s resignation this week, and on Friday morning he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her, officials said.
The departure comes as the Obama administration tries to move beyond its early stumbles in carrying out the law, persuade a still-skeptical public of its lasting benefits, and help Democratic incumbents, who face blistering attack ads after supporting the legislation, survive the midterm elections this fall.
Officials said Ms. Sebelius, 65, made the decision to resign and was not forced out. But the frustration at the White House over her performance had become increasingly clear, as administration aides worried that the crippling problems at HealthCare.gov, the website set up to enroll Americans in insurance exchanges, would result in lasting damage to the president’s legacy.
I’ll always remember her for the stellar moment from November pictured above, in which the administration that lives by Alinsky for once got played by it as well.
What’s your take on Sebelius’s resignation? Let me know in the comments below.
Update: Eric Cantor sticks the rhetorical scalpel in:
I thank Secretary Sebelius for her service. She had an impossible task: nobody can make Obamacare work.
— Eric Cantor (@GOPLeader) April 10, 2014
“The confirmation hearings will, I trust, be zesty,” for Sylvia Mathews Burwell, whom Obama has tapped as the successor to “the now departing supervisor of the Healthcare.gov Chernobyl,” as Allahpundit writes at Hot Air.
Related: Bryan Preston at the PJ Tatler has an initial take on her resignation as well.
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