Mrs. Sebelius doesn’t go to Washington

So the big political news over the weekend was that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has taken herself out of the running for any possible cabinet position in the Obama administration.

Yawn.

Now Sebelius says she wants to focus on Kansas’ massive budget

challenges rather than joining the Obama administration. That’s a noble

sentiment. But I’m inclined to believe the state Republicans’ theory that she was never in serious consideration. Over the weekend, Kansas party chair Kris Kobach told the Star: “She simply may not have brought enough to the table.” (This just in from the Kansas GOP: Kobach won’t seek another term as chair. More on that later.)

Actually, I’d be willing to lay down money that she was never a real possibility for vice president, either. She added nothing to the ticket — no foreign policy experience, no electoral votes — except for estrogen. That was important back in those days after Hillary lost the nomination, so my guess is that the Obama team was simply making a show out of vetting Sebelius for VP. That might have placated Clinton supporters — and then, everything changed after Sarah Palin entered the race and it became clear that estrogen wasn’t enough.

If she wants to live up to the national political mythology surrounding her, she might also want to focus on building a deep-bench Democratic Party in Kansas. As it stands now, her strongest possible successor may be Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson, a former Republican. He may be a good guy, but I doubt he thrills Kansas Democrats.

And, as my colleague Justin Kendall points out, it might have actually helped Kansas Democrats if Sebelius had gotten out of Dodge — that would have given Parkinson a couple of years to build up his brand before facing a likely challenge from Sen. Sam Brownback or Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh.

As it stands now, I’m starting to think the secret to Sebelius’ supposedly great success as a Democratic governor in a bright red state is simply this: Don’t do anything controversial — such as, say, taking the lead in stopping controversial coal-fired power plants in the western part of the state. Instead, just stand in the middle and look good. — C.J. Janovy