GOP Slams Klain's Lack of Medical Background

President Barack Obama’s choice of a long-time Democratic political operative as the nation’s Ebola response coordinator drew scorn from administration critics who said someone with a medical background is needed.

Ron Klain, 53, a lawyer and former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and to former Vice President Al Gore, was appointed amid rising alarm from lawmakers and the public about the government’s handling of the first three cases of the Ebola to emerge in the U.S.

Representative Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican who led a hearing this week where lawmakers grilled federal officials about the Ebola response, called Klain’s selection “shocking and frankly tone deaf to what the American people are concerned about.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest defended the choice, saying Klain’s management expertise is necessary to coordinate the multiple departments and agencies involved, and he has established relationships with members of Congress.

“This is much broader than just a medical response,” Earnest said at a White House briefing yesterday. “He is the right person to make sure that we are integrating the inter- agency response to this significant challenge.”

Public Faith

Representative Fred Upton, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said Obama should have appointed someone with a background in health care or infectious disease.

“What has been missing from this administration’s response to Ebola is not a new figurehead,” the Michigan Republican, said in an e-mailed statement. “What we need is a strategy to get ahead of this, and restore the public’s faith that they are safe.”

Until he opened the door to appointing a single coordinator on Oct. 16, Obama had said his existing staff of advisers could handle Ebola, which is the subject of growing fear in the U.S., with some schools closing in Texas and Ohio and quarantines of health-care workers.

“It’s not that they haven’t been doing an outstanding job really working hard on this issue, but they also are responsible for a whole bunch of other stuff,” Obama said at the White House after meeting with members of his team.

As part of the administration effort, Obama plans to assign senior personnel to serve on the ground in Dallas, including an experienced FEMA coordinator and a White House liaison to make sure all of the region's needs are met, according to a White House statement.

Federal Response

Republican lawmakers have faulted the response by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in trying to keep Ebola infections contained and the public informed. After a Liberian man visiting Dallas died of Ebola last week, two nurses who treated him became the first people infected with the virus in the U.S.

Klain will report to National Security Adviser Susan Rice and the president’s homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco. Klain has a long background in politics, including representing Gore in the Florida recount in 2000. His official biography lists no experience in public health.

Picking someone with a medical background would have been prudent from both health and political perspectives, said John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University who previously taught public health.

“We have a public who’s very, very fearful, lots of exaggeration about how the virus might be transmitted,” he said in an interview. “If we had a czar with a background, it might lead to a little more confidence in the speaker.”

Klain’s Skills

Klain has the ability to bridge partisan divides, given his time as a staff member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Jon Leibowitz, a friend of Klain since they worked together on the panel in the late 1980s.

“Ron has very good relations with Republicans, particularly in the Senate,” Leibowitz, who was chairman of the Federal Trade Commission until last year, said in an interview.

Klain is “one of the most gifted people I know” and has the energy and ability to learn new topics quickly to do the job well, said Leibowitz, now a partner at the Davis Polk law firm in Washington.

Pedro Greer, a Miami doctor who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 for treating the poor and teaches at Florida International University’s medical school, said Klain’s lack of background in public health isn’t necessarily a deficit for the job of a coordinator.

“You have all the scientists and experts at the CDC but what you need is a manager,” Greer said. “With all due respect, we scientists are not the best managers.”

Public Information

One of the key parts of the job will be better informing the public about the virus and containment efforts, he said.

“There’s a hysteria going on about it,” Greer said. “What you need to have is a very well-educated public and that requires a lot of work.”

Klain is currently general counsel at Revolution LLC and president of Case Holdings, two companies founded and run by former AOL chief executive Steve Case.

Case said in a statement on the company’s website the Klain will be taking a leave of absence. He called him “a talented manager” who understands government and business.

John Ullyot, a former Senate Republican aide, called Klain “a real roll-up-your sleeves kind of guy” who “knows all the angles on a problem.”

Klain’s appointment is “a signal they are bringing in someone very senior who can cut through any red tape as needed and get a decision from the Oval Office any time it’s necessary,” Ullyot said.