Max Baucus: “I rise to give my enthusiastic support to the nomination of Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin to be our nation's 19th…”

“I rise to give my enthusiastic support to the nomination of Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin to be our nation's 19th Secretary of Health and Human Services. I think he will be a great Secretary. He has the energy, the spirit, creativity, enthusiasm, and he takes a bipartisanship approach. He is quite a guy. He has the spirit of his predecessor, another Badger, if I can use that term. Secretary Shalala also had a lot of energy and spirit. I think Governor Thompson, when he does retire from that job and looks back upon his term, will find that he feels good about his achievements, and the rest of the country will as well. In saying so, I do not mean to imply that I expect to agree with every position of our about-to-be-Secretary. There are clearly going to be some issues on which we disagree--for example, a woman's right to choose and some aspects of the upcoming Medicare debate. With that said, I think Mr. Thompson is the right person for a very tough job.”