Former National Association of Insurance Commissioners President Kathleen Sebelius has emerged in a lead role in the debate over the price the Iraqi War has taken on national resources.

As governor of Kansas, Ms. Sebelius gained national attention for her assertion earlier this week that shortages of equipment and personnel to deal in the aftermath of the tornado that struck her state Friday was due to the diversion of National Guard resources to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ms. Sebelius even got into a long-distance debate with White House spokesman Tony Snow who said the governor was to blame for not requesting the equipment.

But Mr. Snow backed down somewhat, conceding that Ms. Sebelius had requested a number of the items she said was missing to deal with the tornado that killed 10 in the town of Greensburg, Kan.

By Sunday afternoon, two days after the storm, half of the National Guard complement of troops arrived on the scene. By that evening, a significant number of military vehicles started to arrive, many coming in by caravan from Wichita, about 100 miles away, according to press reports. Ms. Sebelius said earlier this week that she had enough equipment to deal with the devastation.

While the event took 10 lives, and decimated the town, a spokesman for Boston-based AIR Worldwide said the insured dollar losses were not significant enough to release a tally of them.

As president during the critical 2000-01 period, Ms. Sebelius handled the critical initial response to both financial modernization legislation that threatened to rearrange the financial sector playing field, to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks when the industry took up the cause of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

Ms. Sebelius–the daughter of an Ohio governor and daughter-in-law of one Kansas's longtime congressman–moved up to her state's top job in 2002, which was a significant achievement for a Democrat in a Republican year.

After being named as one of Time magazine's most effective governors she handily won re-election last year.

Ms. Sebelius was succeeded in the elected office of insurance commissioner by Republican Sandy Praeger. She is slated to become NAIC president in December.

Special Reports /

Former NAIC Chief In Spotlight

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