Daschle to replace Leavitt at HHS in Obama Cabinet

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama is enlisting former Senate leader Tom Daschle as his health secretary, embracing a third Washington insider in the early stages of Cabinet-building by the president-elect who promised change. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the capital's most famous woman for two decades, seemed ever more likely to be his secretary of state.

Clinton is deciding whether to take that post as America's top diplomat, her associates said Wednesday. And Obama is poised to announce that his attorney general will be Eric Holder, who was the Justice Department's No. 2 when Sen. Clinton's husband was president.

Keeping the seating charts straight is Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff and another veteran of the Clinton White House.

CNN was reporting Wednesday night that Obama has tapped Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona as Homeland Security secretary and billionaire Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker, who served as his campaign finance chairwoman, for Commerce secretary.

Daschle's selection to head the Department of Health and Human Services — confirmed Wednesday but not yet announced — isn't at the same level of Cabinet prestige as the top spots at the State and Justice departments. But the health post could be more important in an Obama administration than in some others, making Daschle a key player in helping steer the president-elect's promised health-care reforms

Daschle will replace current HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, the former governor of Utah. Leavitt was in China on Wednesday talking to officials there about food safety concerns and opening the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration offices there after scares about tainted food coming from that country.

"We're opening up a new era, not just new offices," Leavitt said about the new FDA offices in China. "By having a presence in other parts of the world, we can work more closely with manufacturers and other governments, better share best practices and further ensure that quality and safety are built into food and consumer products at the point of manufacture."

The return of Daschle, a former South Dakota senator, to the government will be a vindication of sorts. He was the Senate Democratic leader when he was defeated in 2004 by Republican John Thune, who persuaded voters back home that Daschle was more concerned with Washington than with them.

In fact, Daschle stayed in the capital city after his defeat, becoming a public policy adviser and member of the legislative and public policy group at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird. Daschle isn't registered as a lobbyist. He advises clients on issues including health care, financial services, taxes and trade, according to the firm's Web site.