VP Watch

Kathleen Sebelius is no longer denying that she is being vetted by Barack Obama's campaign.

The 60-year-old Kansas governor told me on Thursday that she was never vetted for the vice presidency in 2004 but declined to make the same pronouncement about this year's process.

Asked whether Team Kerry ran the traps on her, she flatly said "No." Asked about this year, she said "Any discussion about this process is being done by the campaign itself."

Just last month, Sebelius told McClatchy Newspapers that she had not yet been vetted.

"There has been no discussion with me or anyone else on my team about serving as vice president," she said at the time.

Her reply Thursday is not exactly a smoking gun, but "no" is such an easy answer when it's true -- and she has given it before. It is at least an opening of the door and probably a hint that she is being vetted.

An Obama spokesman did not reply to a request for comment on whether Sebelius was being reviewed by Veep vetters Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder.

But even if the campaign is quiet, Obama can hardly say enough positive things about the second-term governor, who first delivered a Republican state into Democratic hands in 2002.

"I love Kathleen Sebelius," he recently told a FOX affiliate, praising her competence and integrity before pulling back a bit.

The role of The Oft-Mentioned is an unusual one for elected officials -- particularly governors -- who are accustomed to making the decisions that affect their own lives and those of others. Sebelius noted the difference in our conversation.

"It is like having an experience that someone else is driving and talking about," Sebelius said. "It's not like being involved in a campaign where we're actually doing something and taking actions."

Sebelius, who remembers her father, former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, preparing for a 1976 presidential bid before he was unseated in 1974, said it is "flattering" to be among the mentioned.

But she is not always sure who is doing the talking.

"It's a little bit of an experience of watching a lot of the pundits talk to each other and just continuing to do my work here in Kansas," she said.

Still, all the chatter has earned her street cred at home.

"My son talked to me about -- I didn't know this existed. I guess there are brackets that were set up like the Final Four -- he was thrilled. He said, 'Mom, I'm so glad you are a No. 1 seed,' and he had to introduce me to this bracketology."

Yes, Sebelius was a No. 1 seed in CQ's VP Madness, which Gen. Wes Clark won. Sebelius bowed out in a quarterfinal matchup against Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the eventual runner-up. It was the same round in which Hillary Clinton was defeated.

Some folks already have designs on a ticket featuring Kansas' favorite grandson and favorite daughter.

For now, Sebelius says she gets her information on the vice presidential search from newspapers.

"I know about as much as everyone else does," she said.