Filling the Top Jobs

Tom Daschle, the former senator from South Dakota, is President-elect Obama's choice to head up the health and human services department. There, according to the New York Times, he will bring a "kind of moral passion to the campaign for universal coverage. Health care, he says, is rationed on 'the worst possible criteria: one's ability to pay or one's health condition.'"

Over at the Wall Street Journal, an article rounds up the shortlist for the next FDA head. According to the article Joshua Sharfstein, the head of the Baltimore Health Department, is at the top of that list. Sharfstein is known for denouncing Pfizer because they held a marketing event in a pool hall. Other names being floated include Steven Nissen, who is the head of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, and Janet Woodcock, who is a senior official at FDA.