WASHINGTON—Gov. Deval Patrick said Monday he does not plan to leave the Massachusetts governorship to take a job in Barack Obama's cabinet if his friend wins the White House.
Patrick also ruled out the possibility of serving as Obama's running mate, saying he simply loves being the state's chief executive officer too much to accept a federal job.
"I would appreciate the flattery of being asked, but no," Patrick told reporters shortly after he and other governors met with President George W. Bush at the White House.
"I'm a governor," said Patrick, who was attending the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association. "I love this job. This is good."
Asked if his assertion about not leaving the governorship to serve in a Obama administration was "iron-clad," Patrick, a former assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration, said it was.
Patrick has been among Obama's strongest supporters, campaigning for him across the nation, speaking to the media on his behalf and helping him to raise funds. He planned to join other governors supporting Obama at a fundraising event Monday night at a D.C. hotel.
Patrick was recently thrust into the Democratic presidential spotlight when he defended Obama after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., accused him of plagiarizing lines from the governor's speeches.
Patrick dismissed the controversy as "sort of a tempest in a teapot" and chided Clinton for making the charge. He said he had offered the lines in question to Obama after the former first lady's criticisms about her rival's rhetoric.
Patrick also dismissed charges by Clinton that Obama lacks the experience to be an effective president. He said the Illinois senator has plenty of life experience that makes him "somebody who understands what's going on not just in the White House, but in my house, and in everybody's house."
Meanwhile, Patrick and other governors urged Bush and congressional leaders to provide more federal money to states to fix key infrastructure projects such as roads, water systems and bridges.
"We are, all of us governors, are dealing with a long, long history of neglect," Patrick said. "We need a more robust federal partnership, there's no doubt about it."
Patrick joined Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in urging federal officials to renew a Medicaid waiver program they see as vital to the state's new universal health insurance program. The program expires in July.
Kennedy had helped negotitate a 2005 Medicaid waiver extension. Kennedy and Patrick met Monday with Mike Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"This was a constructive first meeting and good start on the process of renewing the Massachusetts waiver," Kennedy said in a statement.
Under the existing agreement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had approved the health insurance program, allowing the state to continue to receive nearly $600 million annually to help support the new program.
"The Medicaid waiver was a very important element of a mosaic that made health reform possible in Massachusetts," said Patrick.
Patrick is expected to testify Tuesday before a House panel on providing health care coverage to uninsured children.
Patrick, meanwhile, was chosen as vice chair of the New England Governors' Conference for 2008 and 2009.
