I am so furious with Tom Daschle that I can hardly see straight. How dare he be so cavalier as to think no one would notice the errors of his judgment? His failure to act honorably has helped deliver a humiliating blow to the Obama administration?

He knew last June that he had the unpaid tax question, and yes, there might be perfectly acceptable explanations for his situation. But he KNEW it was there when he was vetted by the Obama people and he didn't tell them.

Tom Daschle has been around long enough to know about unpaid taxes being a problem for any potential cabinet member - heaven knows, we've seen enough go down in flames in the past. What was he thinking?

Add to that the extraordinary amount of income he has received since he left the Senate - he was paid almost $5 million for consulting, which is a more discreet form of lobbying than Jack Abramoff and friends practiced. To make matters worse, he received some of those fees from companies in the medical community.

The dogs of war are let loose now: Not just the usual puppies, like John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Ensign (R-NV), but now the pitbull Grover Norquist, the anti-tax guy, has emerged from whatever kennel he has been hiding in since he and Abramoff fell out of favor a couple of years back. (He was a big player in the White House during the Republican years; most famously, though, he wants to reduce taxes to where government is forced down to a size small enough to flush down the bathtub drain. D'you think he'd get rid of the White House, too?)

So here they are, yapping and snarling again - just like the good old days. As if they never had a scandal in the world . . .

Not only has Daschle embarrassed the administration and Obama personally, but in the matter of choosing a Secretary of Health and Human Services he has consumed precious time and perhaps even damaged the chances of success for Obama's health care plans.

Thanks, Tom.