Matt Yglesias

35 Responses to “The Daschle Problem”

1. Petey Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 10:47 am

   “But if I’m reading these two posts by Ezra Klein correctly, then it seems to me that if what you want most from Obama is decent, passable legislation, there’s a reasonable, though not clear-cut, case for Daschle”

   Ezra has long badly misread Daschle.

   Progressives ought to hope Daschle goes down this week, though I doubt he will.

2. James Gary Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 10:50 am

   Let us not forget Matt Taibbi’s memorable assessment of the man:

   “In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger.”

   http://www.rollingstone.com/blogs/taibbiunbound/

3. The Fool Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 am

   Don’t keep him in the White House or anywhere else — just get rid of him. Not only is his integrity in question, in practical terms Daschle is a disaster.

   Daschle is a weakiling and a coward — the worst kind of Republican appeaser. When he ran the Senate, he compiled an utterly embarassing record of Republican ass-kissing that makes the timid Harry Reid look like Newt Gingrich.

4. hubcap Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 11:03 am

   I’m a die-hard Dem, and I find the Daschle affair embarrassing for what it says about Obama and what it says about our side that we seem to be OK with it.

   If a Bush administration appointee had “neglected” to pay $120k in taxes we would be through the roof. But since it’s Tom Daschle, apparently it’s cool. Or at worst “unfortunate.”

   I don’t really care if Tom Daschle is a good guy or not. What I do know is that he cashed in so fast he left skid marks; he thought that “good friends” conventionally give each other chauffeured limos; and played cutesy games with his taxes even though, as a millionaire, he presumably could afford a quality accountant. And that even though he did all that, he thinks he deserves to be Secretary of HHS.

   Daschle was kicked out of office. He could have done a lot of things with his life; he chose to get rich. That’s fine. It’s America. He can do what he wants. But I don’t see why Tom Daschle is so special that he should get to cash in, do lobbying work without registering for it, cheat on his taxes and then slip right back into power under an administration that promised it would do things differently.

   I think is Daschle was as decent as his friends say, he would step down. For my part, I think I’m angrier because I realize that the Obama people have played me for a sucker – I actually thought they might run things a little differently. But I guess they’re cool with 13% of their cabinet officials being tax cheats. Stupid me.

5. The Blow Leprechaun Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am

   Eh, the tax thing is blown way out of proportion. He owes the money from charitable deductions that he can’t find receipts for and for the use of a car and driver lent by a friend.

   It’s not tax avoidance, it’s a mistake. If a friend who had a car and driver offered to let you use it, would you have claimed it as income? Please.

   That said, I hate Tom Daschle and always have.

6. Tyro Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 11:18 am

   If a friend who had a car and driver offered to let you use it, would you have claimed it as income?

   If this “friend” was also paying me various other consulting fees, sure. If his friend/employer was sending him the car to drive him to various events he was being paid for, then this would have been a business expense and wouldn’t have warranted a second look. But apparently Daschle was given use of the car and driver for his personal use. Not only is it ridiculous not to report such benefits/gifts/salary as income, it’s tacky.

7. onceler Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 11:26 am

   I don’t buy any of it. Obama feels he owes Daschle, for whatever reason. The ‘gossip’ about all of this is that Rahmbo doesn’t like Daschle, and is lobbying against him, and if he wins this fight, we’ll get someone else who won’t even really try for health care reform.

   I don’t know how true any of that is, but if it is, its a very bad sign. First of all, it would telegraph a stunning amount of weakness from Obama on this issue – one of the signature issues of his campaign! Really, without Daschle there to “lead” the fight, its just over and there’s no hope of passing anything! Or, that’s what we’re led to believe. And therefore we should rally behind Daschle. If this is the plan, then – yikes!

8. Petey Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 11:30 am

   “I don’t really care if Tom Daschle is a good guy or not.”

   I do care.

   If I thought Tom Daschle was a good guy, I’d support him through this.

   But I think Daschle has long proved himself an inept hack good at nothing but projecting an image of high-mindedness. He’s the worst imaginable point man for healthcare reform, and if we’re lucky, this scandal with its revelations of Daschle getting rich by payouts from healthcare insurance companies ought to send him permanently out of the public service.

9. Ed Says:
   February 2nd, 2009 at 11:32 am

   The most worrying thing about Obama so far is his propensity to stuff his cabinet and staff with dinosaurs from the Democratic Washington establishment. Its forgiveable in the case of Hillary Clinton for practical political reasons but otherwise completely unnecessary.

   There are a number of good candidates for cabinet positions in the statehouses, universities, and private sector (including labor unions) that have been passed over. And its not as if Daschle, Biden, or Richardson would have brought down the administration if they werent given government jobs.

   The two problems with relying on establishment stawarts is that you have to put up with a large amount of corruption, plus the record of the establishment in the past fifteen years has been to cooperate with the Republican agenda, block reform, and do various favors to big business that ultimately helped cause the banking crisis. Relying on these people would have been OK for a Democratic president taking office in the 1980s but at this point we really cant afford more of this.

   To a large extent Bushs problems came from relying on Republican stawarts like Cheney and Rumsfeld, also Democratic stalwarts like Mineta and Tenet! Some of his early unorthodox appointments, like Paul ONeill, actually turned out pretty OK.

10. Petey Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 11:33 am

    “we’ll get someone else who won’t even really try for health care reform.”

    There is no one on the Democratic bench who won’t really try for healthcare reform as hard as Tom Daschle won’t really try for healthcare reform.

11. The Blow Leprechaun Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 11:39 am

    It depends on the situation. If the car and driver was assigned to this friend, presumably that friend is already paying for it on his income taxes. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Daschle never bothered to look into it any further than that, so this seems much more like a misunderstanding than avoidance.

12. colby Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am

    Shouldn’t we demand both health care reform AND cleaning out the corruption?

    I mean, as a realist, we should note that we’re never going to get rid of corruption, so I’d pick health care reform.

    But if we, as voters, don’t expect both, we might well end up with neither.

13. Zaid Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 am

    The argument for Daschle is that he’s so tied up in the big money excess of the insurance industry that he is a credible negotiator.

    I say — screw negotiating with the private industry in insurance. They’re the problem, not the solution. This is as credible as Bush appointing industry folks to the departments dealing with them.

14. politicalfootball Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    If a Bush administration appointee had “neglected” to pay $120k in taxes we would be through the roof. But since it’s Tom Daschle, apparently it’s cool. Or at worst “unfortunate.”

    If a Bush administration appointee had done this, we would have regarded it as approximately the 1,978th-worst thing a Bush administration official had done. I’m agnostic on whether Obama should drop Daschle, but these things need to be kept in perspective.

15. Petey Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    “The argument for Daschle is that he’s so tied up in the big money excess of the insurance industry that he is a credible negotiator.”

    I wonder how that is going to work out for us…

    Hey, I’ve got an idea: let’s nominate Bernie Madoff for SEC chairman!

16. Don Williams Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Maybe Daschle’s tax evasion is a clever way of getting Republican support for his nomination.

    “Hell, he’s one of us”.

17. tmginnova Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 12:16 pm

    I’m not so ready to jump on the “get Daschle” bandwagon. While his tax problems are troublesome, I’m willing to cut our new President some slack. He apparently has found Daschle (and former Daschle staffers) to be an important source of good advice. If it takes Daschle’s Hill connections to get good health care policy passed, that sure seems like a small price. No other Democratic stalwarts have been able to. I want a win.
    Past progressive successes that improved people’s lives came from cagey pols like LBJ and political insiders like FDR’s team, who would presumably ruffle feathers in today’s blogosphere. I’m all for appointing talented outsiders, but job one is to get the new policies in place. If Daschle can help do it, my hat’s off to him, warts and all.

18. Petey Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    “Between Daschle and Geithner … Obama’s appointed quite the corrupt cabinet.”

    Daschle got rich trading on his connections, and screwed up the tax reporting of his ill-gotten gains.

    Geithner was an honest civil servant, and screwed up the tax reporting of his middle-class income.

    A bit of a difference in my moral calculus.

19. Raymond Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 1:41 pm

    He should drop Daschle and appoint Howard Dean imo.

20. DC Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 2:45 pm

    It is beyond me that some of my fellow posters here can so cheerfully swallow the canard that a 24/7, 365 chauffeur was a “gift” from one of Daschle’s handlers. I fear for your mental health. Really. Who pays, or should pay, the chauffeur’s annual salary? Do you expect us to believe that Daschle is that dimwitted to believe that’s a gift? And even you perceive the chauffeur to have been a gift, does Daschle believe that we are so effing stupid to think that the ex-majority leader doesn’t know that the tax limit for gifts is only 12K (before 2008, 10K)? No, this is pure, crass cynicism on behalf of Dems who say they are willing to give this guy a break. Only because they think they can approve the guy and get away with it without political consequences. Rather, Obama campaigned on change — and glad-handing Daschle on his way through would/will only prove that we’re going to get little of it.

21. Neo Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    I’m waiting for the announcement that Geraldo Rivera has finally found the secret vaults of “Al” Capone which, to the surprise of everybody, contains a letter in which the 1930’s organized crime figure states that he is sorry that he “forgot” to pay his taxes. The letter would further state that he is a registered Democrat and he should therefore be given a “pass” so that he could continue his many business ventures in the great city of Chicago, rather than die of cardiac arrest (possibly associated with the complications of third-stage neurosyphilis) 8 years after completing his sentence for tax evasion at the federal prison located on the island of Alcatraz.

22. pseudonymous in nc Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    it would telegraph a stunning amount of weakness from Obama on this issue – one of the signature issues of his campaign!

    Veering into Petey territory here, but healthcare reform was not a signature issue for Obama, much to my regret. His heart’s not really in it.

    If Daschle goes down — one more revelation will do it, because the Senate won’t be the ones to whack him — then there’s the possibility of getting someone who may not be as buddy-buddy with the legislators, but who is able to take the case to the public during a time when employer-based healthcare is being squeezed.

    The perfect may be the enemy of the good, but the Senate legislative process is an even greater enemy.

23. Rich Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    Two Words. Howard Dean. Problem Solved.

    Like others, I have no hope that Obama or Daschle will do the right thing.

    Obama’s appointments have certainly been disappointing. I agree with Ed (post # 9) … real change is needed. We can not solve our problems with people who are indoctrinated into the existing paradigms.

    Although I still think HRC should have become Senate Majority leader … ruling with an iron fist for the next generation or so.

24. Hopefully Anonymous Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    Where did this myth come from that it’s the HHS secretary’s job to push health care legislative reform? I don’t recall that happening in any past efforts. My understanding is that it has always been an administrative position.

    Daschle helping pass health care reform and somebody running HHS seem completely separable to me. If the suggestion is that the position is offered as a quid pro quo to give Daschle an incentive to help health care reform pass (like Sen. Ted Kennedy’s quid pro quo of a Senate seat for his niece in exchange for him helping fundraise for that New York Senate seat’s future elections), make it transparent in this space.

25. Ravi Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    Petey has spoken. Based on his track record (particularly v. Ezra), I’d say that is a pretty strong endorsement of Daschle.

26. Hopefully Anonymous Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 6:31 pm

    I think this also makes a decent case for a constitutional amendment giving approval power and/or votes of presidential nominees from the Senate to be done by the House (if they have both a House and Senate past, then still the House, since it tends to change composition quicker and is less collegial).

27. DC Says:
    February 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm

    Looks like it’s going through, with no member opposition whatsoever. Pathetic.

28. viagra Says:
    March 1st, 2009 at 10:40 am

    viagra
    It is the coolest site,keep so!

29. cialis Says:
    March 1st, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    cialis
    I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!

30. zyban Says:
    March 13th, 2009 at 5:36 am

    I want to say – thank you for this!

31. tramadol Says:
    March 22nd, 2009 at 7:36 am

    tramadol
    I want to say – thank you for this!

32. buy viagra online Says:
    March 22nd, 2009 at 11:29 am

    buy viagra online
    Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!

33. brand viagra Says:
    April 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 am

    If you have to do it, you might as well do it right
    buy cheap viagra

34. cheap viagra Says:
    April 8th, 2009 at 4:23 am

    It is the coolest site,keep so!
    viagra

35. mark Says:
    April 16th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

    thanks !! very helpful post!
    viagra