So far I've seen just two names floated for President-elect Obama's HHS Secretary: Tom Daschle and Howard Dean. One's bad; the other's worse.

The bad: Tom Daschle.

Daschle's newest claim to fame is offering "strategic advice" (thinly read as lobbying) to clients in the fields of health care, energy, telecommunications and taxes. This ought to immediately disqualify him for such a visible post as HHS Secretary, to avoid any perception of conflict of interest.

Even The New York Times identifies Daschle's connections as baggage and notes that these connections fly in the face of Obama's frequent and loud criticisms of monied special interests running our government.

If this isn't enough to disqualify him, the fact that his wife is "regarded as one of the most influential professional lobbyists in the capital" should completely put a nail in the Daschle-for-HHS-Secretary coffin.

The worse: Howard Dean.

Where do I start to disabuse President-elect Obama of any notion about Howard Dean as HHS Secretary?

While Dean is widely credited with the vaunted "50-State Strategy", it is Rahm Emanuel, the President-elect's newly-named Chief of Staff, who turned the House and Senate blue in 2006 and paved the way for larger gains in 2008.  Dean himself admits that the 50-state strategy would not have worked had Barack Obama not had the funds and foresight to organize and place offices in all 50 states.

Dean also allegedly was ineffective in generating income for the DNC after the 2006 midterm election, which left them financially on the brink at the close of this year's primary campaign.

There also remain questions about Dean's unwillingness to step in and speak up about the sexism and racism that flamed throughout the primary, as well as a ton of bad will between Hillary Clinton supporters, Dean and the DNC because of the sexism and Dean's perceived tilt toward Sen. Obama during the primaries.  

Finally is the attitude. At once irascible and over-the-top (the "Dean Scream"), there seems no middle ground in his temperament. And political analyst James Carville has called his management style  "Rumsfeldian", because of its over-control and less-than-democratic style.

Add to this mix the fact that Vermont's population -- where Dean was governor -- makes up approximately one-fifth of even a small Southern state, and that in spite of Vermont's children's health care program, which was signed into law under Dean, Massachusetts, another New England state, has health care for its entire population and serves as a model for Obama's own health care proposal. 

Sure, I have some grudging respect for Dean. He did, after all, shepherd Democrats to a presidential victory this year. That doesn't mean I think he automatically deserves consideration for or title of HHS Secretary. After all, there's a big difference between running the DNC and running the nation's most prominent agency.