https://youtube.com/watch?v=kh8PMkRCRO0
Despite several calls for Kathleen Sebelius’s resignation, or for President Obama to fire her, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank thinks that the Health and Human Services secretary didn’t receive the same level of criticism as President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder because of her race.
From MSNBC on Thursday:
Let’s compare Holder to Kathleen Sebelius, who has presided over Obamacare, which is the thing that has most antagonized the Right and the Republicans over all these years. You’re not seeing calls for her impeachment, you’re not seeing the same level of personal vitriol.
I think, that’s why, again, it’s fair to ask the question, and let every individual say why it is that they have that particular antipathy toward this attorney general, toward this president, and why not, say, toward Kathleen Sebelius, who they’re obviously much more at odds with.
Milbank’s explanation comes after Holder suggested race was why Congress has been harsh on him and the president.
Since the botched launch of HealthCare.gov last October, several lawmakers called on Sebelius to resign, including 32 House Republicans and a handful of GOP senators such as Kansas’s Pat Roberts and Kentucky’s Rand Paul. Additionally, in 2012, the conservative nonprofit Cause of Action argued that Congress had the authority to impeach Sebelius for violating the Hatch Act by engaging in partisan political activity.
To Milbank, Republicans’ objections to either Obama, Holder, or Sebelius couldn’t be rooted in substantive concerns on important matters. Instead, somehow, race is the motivating factor.