Barack Obama’s administration seems to be taking shape!

Yesterday it was reported that the president-elect tapped Eric Holder as his attorney general, and now Democratic officials are claiming that Tom Daschle has signed on to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

Daschle, a former senator from South Dakota, recently wrote a book on reforming our nation’s health-care system, and insiders are celebrating the move as evidence President-elect Obama means business when he says he’ll improve clunky institutions. The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn described the position as "perfect" for Daschle, while American Prospect journalist Ezra Klein could barely contain his excitement:

You don’t tap the former Senate Majority Leader to run your health-care bureaucracy. That’s not his skill set. You tap him to get your health-care plan through Congress. You tap him because he understands the parliamentary tricks and has a deep knowledge of the ideologies and incentives of the relevant players. You tap him because you understand that health-care reform runs through the Senate. And he accepts because he has been assured that you mean to attempt health-care reform.

Ron Pollack, who’s executive director of Families USA, also lauded the rumors, saying that Daschle’s pick "confirms that the incoming Obama administration has made health-care reform a top and early priority for action in 2009."

Though Daschle’s said to have accepted the position, Obama’s transition team must now review his background before giving him the green light. Well, not so much Mr. Daschle’s background, but his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who has lobbied for a number of companies, but mostly in the airline industry, an industry that could definitely use its own overhaul!