Daschle Withdraws

Link here. And scalps are collected and there's much rejoicing in Republican-land.

Question: Daschle was also given the title of "health policy czar" or something, with a White House office and responsibility for coordinating health care policy. Is that out, too? Anyone?

On balance, this is good for health care reform in that progressives will now be more likely to get on board. This is really bad for Obama, a chink in the armor that Republicans can point to and repeat incessantly. Daschle is now in that litany of Kimba Wood and Zoe Baird and all the Clinton appointees who were denied. Nancy Killefer is in there now, too.

This is also indicative of the rot in the Democratic Beltway establishment. Daschle and Bill Richardson were always considered stalwarts and sure bets for any cabinet right up to the moment when they had disqualifying parts of their records. We need new blood in the party, which is what Obama's Presidency was expected to deliver, yet in most cases he fell back on the same compromised figures. Experience is a double-edged sword.

...The NYT is dead right in this editorial, and hopefully the greater media can apply this broadly among both parties:

Mr. Daschle’s financial ties to major players in the health care industry may prove to be even more troublesome as health reform efforts proceed. Like many former power players in Washington, Mr. Daschle cashed in on his political savvy and influence to earn $5 million in recent years, including more than $2 million from Alston & Bird, a law and lobbying firm; more than $2 million from the private equity firm, InterMedia Advisors, which provided the car and driver; and hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches to interest groups, including those representing health insurance plans, medical equipment distributors and pharmacy boards.

Although Mr. Daschle was not a registered lobbyist, he offered policy advice to the UnitedHealth Group, a huge insurance conglomerate. He was also a trustee of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, on whose behalf he voiced opposition to a federal loan for a freight rail line near the clinic’s headquarters in Rochester, Minn. The loan was subsequently denied by the Federal Railroad Administration.

Mr. Daschle is another in a long line of politicians who move cozily between government and industry. We don’t know that his industry ties would influence his judgments on health issues, but they could potentially throw a cloud over health care reform. Mr. Daschle could clear the atmosphere by withdrawing his name.

The Return of the Friday News Dump!

Tom Daschle edition:

ABC News has learned that the nomination of former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to be President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services has hit a traffic snarl on its way through the Senate Finance Committee.

The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Mr. Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend, a chauffeur service the former Senator used for years without declaring their use on his taxes.

It remains an open question as to whether this is a "speed bump," as a Democratic Senate ally of Daschle put it, or something more damaging."

More here. The "wealthy Democratic friend" is Leo Hindery, who was almost Obama's Commerce Secretary. Yikes!

President Obama’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Tom Daschle, filed amended tax returns and paid more than $100,000 in back taxes on Jan. 2, administration officials said on Friday.

Mr. Daschle concluded that he owed the taxes for free use of a car and driver that had been provided to him by Leo Hindery Jr., the founder of a private equity firm known as InterMedia Advisors, the officials said.

Mr. Daschle was chairman of the firm’s advisory board. In a financial disclosure statement filed this month with the Office of Government Ethics, Mr. Daschle reported that he had received large amounts of income from InterMedia, including more than $2 million for consulting and $182,520 in the form of “company-provided transportation.”

The larger problem, perhaps, is how easy it is for reasonably wealthy and well-connected people to cheat on their taxes. Or, if you're more forgiving, how hard it is to untangle the complex web of rules in the tax code.

And, with now three reports of trouble with nominations, you have to wonder how world-class that Obama vetting operation is.

In Their Own Words

It might be worth telling every media figure who listens to Sarah Palin tonight that she'll be reading a speech written for somebody else. It's typical for a politician to read somebody else's words, but not somebody else's speech:

There was a flutter of attention when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told a group of Post reporters and editors yesterday that his team was having to rework the vice presidential acceptance speech because the original draft, prepared before Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen, was too "masculine." While we all wondered to ourselves what might make a speech masculine or feminine, no one batted an eye at the underlying revelation: that the campaign was writing the nominee's speech before knowing who the nominee would be [...]

So when you watch Sarah Palin tonight, expect to learn something about how well she handles a Teleprompter. Expect to learn something about the McCain campaign's assessment of its political standing with women, or working families, or social conservatives. Whether you're learning what Sarah Palin really thinks or feels is anybody's guess.

Fercryinoutloud, that's from FRED HIATT. If he's figured this one out, I hope the context will stretch to the rest of the media. Tonight is a kabuki theater show and a layup for Mrs. Palin. It will mean nothing.

Maybe Team McCain had to start writing the speech because they didn't even vet Palin until the day before they picked her, which would explain the utter chaos that has followed the pick.

Is it weird for me to say that this doesn't sound like parody, considering?