Last week, conservatives raised alarms over the news that Mitt Romney had tapped former Utah governor and Bush administration HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt to lead his transition team were he to become president. Leavitt has been a leading Republican advocate for implementing Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges and his consulting practice has raked in fees helping states set up the exchanges. But in a meeting with the Washington Examiner’s editorial board this morning, Sen. Mike Lee, one of the leading conservatives in the Senate, defended his fellow Utah Republican.

“Mike Leavitt is a statesman and he is a statesman of the highest order and he is an outstanding manager. He’s got unparalleled skills in terms of his personal relations, things like that,” Lee said. “The fact that he has run a business, run it effectively, and found a way to make a profit in one thing or another shouldn’t be something that causes anyone, especially conservatives, to criticize him for doing. We need to avoid falling into that trap that sometimes the left falls into of saying, ‘Oh, profit seeker. Must be evil.’ He is a very effective administrator and I can understand why Gov. Romney would place confidence in him. I certainly don’t think it ought to be a concern for conservatives.”