She left voluntarily, so the story goes -- which shouldn’t be all that surprising. For months the president refused to fire her. But what’s really “remarkable” -- besides the fact that Sebelius wasn’t canned earlier, as one CBS reporter put it -- is that she stayed on for months and months only to retire when the administration finally rounded a corner, and there was some “good news” to celebrate. Why?
One lefty wonk has very interesting take as to why that’s the case, but perhaps the real reason is that she couldn’t take the humiliation anymore. Late-night comics and Congressional Republicans have had a field day at her expense since the botched roll-out began, embarrassing the administration at every turn. Maybe she was tired of the negative press, and with no credibility left, felt her only recourse was to call it quits?
From The Right Scoop:
“This will be one of Kathleen Sebelius’ legacies,” the narrator intones, “a website that didn’t work.” Oof. And yet in fairness to her, she did the best she could in a rather difficult situation. Even House Republicans are willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, it seems:
I thank Secretary Sebelius for her service. She had an impossible task: nobody can make Obamacare work.
— Eric Cantor (@GOPLeader) April 10, 2014
Her successor will no doubt have her work cut out for her. So it's probably a good thing, then, her area of expertise isn't health care, right? Hmmm.