Not sure I quite see the Ron Paul connection you draw, Andrew. Surely Ron Paul opposes federal laws requiring all insurance policies to cover contraception, which is what the quote you cited was about. I imagine he even opposes all federal funding of contraception programs, doesn’t he? That would put him to the right of Orr, according to the very same Wall Street Journal item you were quoting from.
Susan Orr is an experienced expert, has been an associate commissioner of the Children’s Bureau in HHS, was a senior HHS career staffer for six years during the Clinton administration, and worked at the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. She was even director of the Center for Social Policy at the Reason Public Policy Institute, which ought to please Ron Paul. Not exactly an agent of the dark ages.
Even if Orr were more conservative than Ron Paul (and Ron Paul is very conservative on these issues, let’s not forget) I don’t think appointing social conservatives to sensitive posts is “politically clumsy” if they’re qualified for the job and support the policies of the administration they’re hired to serve.