Daschle
By all accounts, Tom Daschle was (1) an inspired choice for health-care czar, (2) partly because he was so well-connected, and (3) among other things, the sloppy beneficiary of a corrupt political-economic system. All three.
By removing himself from consideration, he spared Barack Obama what he could ill-afford: a wound to his reputation as post-partisan, post-corruption avatar of morality. A dishonest creep like George W. Bush had no standard to adhere to; Obama is right to promise something qualitatively higher.
His problem is that is he promised something exceedingly high: connectedness, a good predictor of practical results (including health care) plus transcendence of Washington insider mores. This may turn out to be squaring the circle. It has come to pass that the difficulties of passing intelligent legislation are such as to require an insider like Daschle who knows how to maneuver--to wheedle and count votes as well as to think. It's no longer good enough for a reform president to surround himself with the sort of free-standing (many of them university-based) brain-trusters to whom FDR was partial. Someone as well-connected as Daschle is very likely to be too well connected. As we have just discovered.
Obama recoups some of the loss, but not all, by saying, "I think I screwed up." What's sad, though, is that almost all public officials of any duration are entangled in webs of tainted influence that disqualify them from the appearance of disinterestedness. (God knows who all of Judd Gregg's friends are.) Obama's still honeymooning, but he'd better start delivering the goods--and reminding Republicans who won the election--before his reputation for error mounts any higher.
Why can't I write and reason like you, Todd? I really do study and practice.
February 3, 2009 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
"reminding Republicans who won the election"
This I like. GOP'ers should be embarassed to show their faces. Everytime they pop up, Democrats should play Whack-A-Mole. The Democratic PR campaign has been resting on its laurels for too long... There is no time to waste. These people are in the way; and they must be shamed into submission. Let's get 'em.
February 3, 2009 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Someone believed Obama was post-partisan? I voted for him as a partisan, and am pissed that he won't take up the lead.
Daschle has been revealed to be another corrupt crony. Dumping him is fine. Time to look for untainted people. Perhaps Obama will have to look outside DC.
February 3, 2009 10:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama ran on the right message. He had no choice. Now he has no choice but to try to square the circle. I don't envy him this task, either.
Packing his team with outsiders is an appealing but totally impractical notion. First, it assumes that failure to pay taxes, cronyism and assorted other moral lapses exist only inside the Beltway. Until we somehow manage to disassociate public service from power, Washington will attract mainly the power-hungry. And power corrupts.
Second, much as I'd like to see the administration turned over to the morally incorruptible, there are too many problems that need to be solved. Too much sausage has to be made.
February 3, 2009 11:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
As uncomfortable as this entire episode has been, I am proud, as an American, to once again have a President who is able to admit he erred.
Can anyone even imagine Bush admitting to a substantive mistake?
February 4, 2009 12:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heck, remember when they asked him?
February 4, 2009 12:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Todd,
Yours is the silliest, of silly shit, that I'm yet to read at TPM.
February 4, 2009 12:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're yet to read it? Okay.
February 4, 2009 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
If you're referring to post, why of course I read it. To comment on something you haven't read, to me, would be unconscionably dishonest at an intellectual level.
That's why I hold the hordes who review Ann Coulter's books without reading them in such low regard.
I find Todd's pusillanimous attempt to whitewash the appointment of criminals to cabinet positions really silly shit.
February 4, 2009 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
What's the matter, troll? Your favorite porn site down today?
February 4, 2009 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I supported and voted for Obama mainly because I wanted change in America starting in Washington. Caving into the R's and giving credibility to their horrible ideology is par for the course for the D's and isn't change we can believe in.
I am all for letting the R's have their say. But that doesn't mean that the D's, in the name of 'bi-partisanship', should cave in and help further the GOP's failed agenda which is what got us to where we are now.
The R's lost...because their ideology is ruining America and the American people realized that fact. We want change!!! Help the American people first not Pharma, Health Insurance companies and Investment Bankers many of whom still have assets in the 9 figure range, etc, etc, etc.
February 4, 2009 12:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Todd Gitlin said:
Very likely? As we have just discovered? Speak for yourself.
You make it sound like Obama barely knew Daschle. Obama has benefited from Daschle's connections quite well, in fact:
Daschle was not an "inspired" choice at all. Obama owed him:
No two ways about it: Obama owed a(n unregistered) lobbyist a big fat favor. Of course you're entitled to your opinion that Obama has a reputation even approaching "post-partisan, post-corruption avatar of morality," but it's troubling that as someone who has long followed politics, you completely ignore the 101st Senator (Rouse) and the other Washington insiders who comprise the new administration and have thoroughly obliterated Obama's hollow promise to transcend "Washington insider mores."
February 4, 2009 1:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
"...an insider like Daschle who knows how to maneuver--to wheedle and count votes as well as to think"
Too bad he didn't think before he helped Bush ram the Iraq vote through the Senate in October 2002.
February 4, 2009 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I for one believe "WE THE PEOPLE" are ready and willing to have folks in office who are patriotic... even WITHOUT the connections and backgrounds of the Washington "establishment".
After all, it's the clowns with all these backgrounds and connections... and total lack of integrity (until they are caught and apologize) who have taken this country to the brink of destruction while maintaining their power and influence.
Until we MANDATE both parties to clean up (which is unlikely) or get out... the Daschles will continue to float to the surface and stomp on the graves of those folks who really cared for the future of this nation more than their own prestige... IMHO
February 4, 2009 1:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just to add to my rant from above...
I shouldn't have ignored the 'DC insider' angle. I really focused on bi-partisan/post-partisan nonsense when I should have also spoke about the 'culture of corruption' issue too. It seems that we are having a 'the more things change the more they stay the same' moment right now. The people, both D & R, who presided over making this mess are being tasked to clean it up. That makes about as much sense as letting CEO's who screwed up their companies, and our economy, stay in their positions when hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are needed to fix what they wrought. It makes no sense, will change nothing and will inevitably lead us to the same place in the future.
I see the D's openness to the R's pushing of additional corporate tax cuts as part of the stimulus package as a perfect example of the problem. Corporate tax cuts? As in 'the better the wealthy do the better we all do'? Isn't that just more 'trickle down economics'? The same trickle down economics that got us into this mess to begin with? Between promoting the outsourcing of US jobs, substantial tax cuts and greatly reduced regulation US corporations reaped a windfall. But where was the upside for the American worker? Wasn't it supposed to be that the better the corporations did the better we all would do? Instead the American people ended up further in debt, the players in our deregulated market did fantastically for a while until their greed did them in and now the American taxpayer is being put on the hook to cover the corporate losses...while being told that even more tax cuts for the wealthy is just the tonic for what ails us. This illustrates exactly what is wrong, in a very bi-partisan sense, with 'Washington Think'...and is what needs to be changed.
February 4, 2009 3:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
So true! We are totally losing the moment to drive home the fact that it is the failure of their ideology that got us in this fix. Instead of standing for a clear alternative, we are still enabling them as if we were victims of Stockholm Syndrome. Maybe Obama needs to hire some therapists to treat the Democratic caucus.
February 4, 2009 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good post, Libertine. Perhaps the solution would be for irs.gov to post the 1040s of each and every elected and appointed federal official, so that the public can see exactly who earns what from whom and what each of them pays (or doesn't pay) in taxes.
Also, as many have suggested in the past, the federal health benefits provided to Congresspersons and Senators should be exactly the same as those provided to your average citizen -- i.e., at present, none at all.
February 4, 2009 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
It may be appropriate for Todd to point this out but Obama has a long way to go before his intent or ability to deliver come in question.
Even then, with the mess Obama has inherited and the fact that few if any of our lawmakers past or present aren't without baggage, this administration has to be given some extra leeway.
We need to have some hope that things will work out but we also need to keep our expectations in check.
This may be a cynical outlook but Daschle is probably typical of many persons who count their wealth in the millions. A screw up of a hundred thou give or take doesn't mean much to them. Most Americans (myself included) don't have to deal with six, seven or eight figure income numbers so its hard for us to understand how someone can miss reporting taxes in a six figure range. I don't mean to excuse it but it's like a wage earner making a mistake that amounts to twenty or thirty dollars on their tax return. The mistakes may be similar as a percentage, but when you are working on a base in the millions with an understandably complex tax return, any error translates to a lot of money. This places a higher burden for accuracy on those persons who make a lot of money. I'm a small business owner and it isn't until I've gone through all the numbers and paperwork three or four times (at least), that I am confident that I have everything in order before I give it all to my accountant at tax time. It isn't all that simple. How our government manages to deal with the trillions they have to watch over is beyond me. Getting all this stuff absolutely correct may be too much to ask and could well lead to a rubber room for anyone who may be so foolish as to insist on perfection.
February 4, 2009 7:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
So how did a guy who has been nothing much other than a "public servant" get all the money? This is what drives people into a rant. If they cared as much about our healthcare or anything else as they do about becoming so wealthy that $300K is pocket change, maybe we'd have universal healthcare already!
February 4, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have no doubt about Obama's intelligence. It's his self-assurance that has me concerned.
Bringing right wing Republicans into his cabinet, and thereby administration deliberations, is highly problematic. As an extreme example of what Obama appears to be doing is ...
Obama takes in as a cabinet member, a Russian openly working for the KGB, or whatever it is now called. The rationale given is that Russia and the U.S. have a number of areas in which they have agreement and issues in common, and by bringing in the KGB, both sides will be able, at least on certain issues, work TOGETHER for the betterment of the Ameri.. er .. Russians ... er World.
Can you say KUMBAYA, brother.
Say KUMBAYA, brother Vladimir.
(Putin must be dumbfounded, but eternally grateful, for the simple minded leaders Americans present to the ex-Evil Empire.)
February 4, 2009 9:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
What about Geithner's tax issues? It is peculiar that there is such a double standard WITHIN the ranks of Obama appointees.
Personally, I'd want someone more progressive on health care (eg single payer) than either Obama or Daschle, but these things happen. Maybe Kerry would be a good choice for the position.
February 4, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not a double standard exactly. Geithner more or less made the kind of mistake that many other taxpayers could see themselves making -- "overlooking" the complexity of his individual situation while answering seemingly simple TurboTax questions (are you an employee or are you self-employed?) For 99.9% of employees the answer to this question is totally straightforward. It wasn't for Geithner -- whether he should have realized that at 1:00 am on April 15 when he was sitting down to do his taxes, I can't say.
Daschle's "mistake" is situated squarely within the context of everything about Washington that alienates and outrages voters.
February 4, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. The idea that there is only one person in America qualified to direct HHS is beyond stupid.
2. The idea that there is only one person in American who has the backbench legislative skills to shepherd health care reform through Congress is beyond stupid.
3. The idea that 1 & 2 need to be the SAME person is idiocy personified.
I think Obama fell into the kind of trap with Daschle that the lefty blogosphere falls into on a routine basis with Obama: the idea that you can hand something off to one person and breathe easy and relax and not have to do any more heavy lifting, and the shattering and existential disappointment when that turns out not to be a workable plan.
Obama will have to lead the way on health care reform. He cannot rely on Daschle or anyone else to make the hard political choices on what it includes or how it is structured.
February 4, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
If he was so qualified, why didn't he get universal health care through Congress when he was majority leader? For the same reason he wouldn't get it through now. We can't annoy Blue Dogs and the lobbies who own them.
February 4, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink