On monday, when asked if he still supported Tom Daschle as Health And Human Services (HHS) chief, even though Daschle owed $140K in back taxes until his nomination was announced, President Barack Obama said "absolutely."
On tuesday, after Daschle withdrew his name from consideration, Obama said the following during an interview with Chris Wallace. (link)
"…we can't send a message to the American people that we've got two sets of rules: one for prominent people and one for ordinary people. And, you know, so I consider this a mistake on my part and one that I intend to fix and correct and make sure that we're not screwing up again."
That's quite a change. What caused Obama's complete about face in one day ?
The President decided there shouldn't be "two sets of rules" only AFTER his nominee quit on his own. Prior to that, Obama was perfectly fine with two sets of rules. And if the same standard applied for everybody, Tim Geithner (didn't pay $35K in taxes) wouldn't be the Secretary of the Treasury.
According to Daschle, he called Obama to withdraw his name after reading a New York Times editorial against Daschle's nomination. (link) Wow. The Times was against something Obama did ??? Color me impressed. Obviously, this means the NY Times has been taken over by racists.
Just kidding. I couldn't resist.
To me, the most interesting part of Tom Daschle's HHS nomination wasn't the $140,000 in unpaid taxes, it was the fact that Daschle was lining his pockets working for a lobbying firm in the health care industry, and Obama selected him anyway, in spite of Obama's recurring pledges that lobbyists wouldn't work in his administration, that insider politics-as-usual would change, and all that rot. If Daschle is anything, he is an ultimate Washington D.C. insider power broker.
After 26 years in Congress, Daschle went to work for the lobbying arm of the K Street firm Alston & Byrd. Because Daschle was prevented by law from being a lobbyist for one year after leaving the Senate, Daschle's title was "special policy advisor." A&B was paid $5.8 million in the first nine months of 2008 to represent it's clients before Congress and the executive branch. The majority of that lobbying was done on behalf of A&B's clients in the health care industry. Daschle was paid $2 miliion by Alston and Byrd to be an "advisor." In other words, Daschle was a lobbyist without technically being a lobbyist. He legally skirted around the law. I'd presume this is not what Barack Obama meant when he said there would be "no special interests in the White House," but since Obama selected Daschle, who is hip deep in the lobbying game, I'm no longer sure what the heck Obama meant, or if he meant anything at all. Maybe it just sounded good on the campaign trail.
Daschle did have health care experience that dovetailed with Obama's interests, which made Daschle "the best man for the job" according to the White House.
Daschle acted as the coordinator of the failed effort to pass President Bill Clinton's comprehensive health-care bill in 1994, and he advocated for regulation of managed care, a patients' bill of rights, and prescription drug benefits under Medicare.
So, Daschle worked on HillaryCare, which went down in flames and is widely seen as the reason the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994. Okay, that's something, but does it really make Daschle "the best man for the job" at HHS ? Not yet, but there's much more.
Here are the real reasons Daschle was "the best man for the job."
In february 2007, Daschle threw his support behind Obama for president, early during the primary season. He became a key Obama advisor and one of the national co-chairs for the Obama campaign. Daschle let it be known that he was interested in universal health care and would be interested in the HHS job. In 2008, Daschle co-wrote a book with two others, titled "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis", which advocates a single-payer universal government run health care system. Daschle wanted to create a Federal Health Board to oversee all medical matters (BINGO !!! Best man for the job !!!). Most people call this socialized medicine. Obama has said he favors a single-payer system, and it's no secret that his health care proposals are designed to lead us there.
I submit the following – the Obama people don't give a darn that Daschle didn't pay his taxes, or that he worked for a lobbying firm in the very area he would have been running. Heck no. They just kept telling us what a great guy Daschle is, so very honest and upright. Then they feigned concern over these "serious matters," while hoping Daschle would be whisked right through the confirmation process. That's how the game works. What they were really telling you is that rules are for suckers, and D.C. power players aren't suckers. No sir. THEY are players. WE'RE the suckers.
But then Daschle up and quit, amid objections, so now the Obama administration pretends they are taking the high road, which they never were doing.
Playing "let's pretend" is the name of the game.
They pretend Daschle didn't know he owed $140,000 in back taxes until the second he was nominated to run HHS. They pretend it was just a coincidence that the penalties on those taxes were waived. They pretend Daschle thought his "friend" just gave him a free limousine and a free driver, even though that "friend" was Daschle's business partner. They pretend it's normal for a health care company to pay Daschle $83,000 for ONE MONTH of "consulting." They pretend it's normal for Daschle to fly all over the country in corporate jets. They pretend that it's normal to pay Daschle $15,000-$40,000 just to GIVE A SPEECH, which happened over and over and over again. Yeah, let's just pretend. Nothing to see here. No influence peddling. My, no. Just business as usual, D.C. style.
Somehow, none of the above actions by Daschle was deemed "shameful" by President Obama or his vetting team, because they selected Daschle. The Democrats reserve such labels for Wall Street compensation, oil company profits, and car company CEO's, but never one of their own. No sirree. Tom Daschle was merely an "honest and humble public servant."
That's the ticket.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
You are right on about this King. I just wish the average American would understand. We need to start voting these guys out, Dems and Reps, a little at a time. Then make it illegal for them to work for lobbiests at all. But if we have no one up on the hill that will be our advocates, what can we do? (It seems the only ones running for pres really worried about the people were Kucinich and Paul) Not even Obama the christ is willing to help us, No matter what he says, it is still the good old boys club.
Now that he is president and we see the decisions he is making, do the Dems still trust him? He made poor decisions before the elections, with his associations and now with his appointments. He reminds me of the kid in school who was really nice, but because of his childhood home life he tends to drift toward friends that are less than reputable and wanted to please that crowd with favors.
Daschle stepped down…nothing more to see here. The End.
Why would a worshiper of Saint Barack of Hopenchange want this story to go on? Why I guess he wouldn't since one of the worst has said the story is over. How about the other tax cheats who have been caught after being appointed by Obama?
I am very tired of hearing the sound bite in which Obama told Anderson Cooper, "I screwed up". CNN has run it over and over all morning. I know that Saint Barack screwed up in that appointment and, I, like anybody else know that he appointed Daschle for one reason and only one reason. He wanted to see his universal system of one payer health care instituted and Daschle had been one of those people for many years.
Lets say that the minute he made the appointment Daschle remembered what he had not done but even The Man thought he could slip this appointment by the voters. Of course he screwed up, but he did that when he continued to be for Dashcle for the job not in appointing him. There is a double standard here and Obama is willing to use it to get his way with all things.
Good points all, King. I was hoping against hope that Obama might be different, as he claimed, but I'm starting to see that he's not at all different.
Daschle had to step down, probably because he didn't want any further investigations to lead to a lengthy jail term for himself. Obama's just offering us more crooks. You're right. Total double standards from the guy who encouraged us to keep our thermostats low during the election so he could crank the thermostat in the White House up a few more notches. Unimaginable, I know.
Another Obama reversal: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5655115.ece
rev says, "Daschle stepped down…nothing more to see here. The End."
Remember when Bush appointees (ie Harriet Meyers, Bernard Kerik) were examples of poor judgement? Oh those were the days. Now its nothing to see here, please move along. This president can do no wrong and his judgement is unquestionable.
This is showing bad judgement on him and his administration. The people are going to stop trusting him. A story on MSNBC of all places, said that said 74% of people said that Washington is business as usual. A 26% approval rating, in less than 3 weeks. He is overwhelmed and we can't afford overwhelm right now.
I am not saying that Daschele's support won Iowa for Obama but it sure did play a significant role. Senator Sleaze was on the board of numerous biofuel companies and they provided millions of dollars,transportation and organizational support top Booma as he campaigned throughout the state championing the false hopes of bio-fuel to the states farmers.
I confess –I can neither read spell or know how to use spellcheck.
should read–support for obama as—
I don't like Daschle, never have. But he stepped down. Obama, who is not responsible for stuff he doesn't know about, took the blame for the eff-up.
What should he have done, slashed his wrists on primetime teevee?
Before Obama even took office the usual wingnuts began smearing and biting at him. We're in to his administration two weeks, Obama has accomplished a lot of good stuff already, but dishonest brokers, like my Kansas buddy, roysoldboy, are piling on stuff that he doesn't even know anything about.
Same old.
The question I have is this….Why do conservatives, motivated by their Dear Leader Limbaugh, want America to fail? Why do Boner and Steele believers want America to experience a more severe Depression than in the 30's?
Why?
Totally off the subject: Congress plasses bill to plush back end of analog untill June. Why dont we just Britain did and have the gov. go door to door and correct any problems that might occur from the switch. While the gov. is at my hose maybe they could clean my gutters so the water flowed properly.
He's off to a disastrous start, plugging the biggest roll in the pork in our nation's history–if he'd campaigned honestly he'd have promised, 'I'll double congressional spending in my first year and hopefully double it again my second."
Obama also seems to plan to send a couple brigades to Afghanistan without any plan or goal as to what to do with them. That could go worse than Iraq.
Obama appoints corrupt politicians, and seems to think it's okay if they cheat on their taxes. If he wants to make me think he seriously believes he screwed up he needs to fire the other tax cheat he appointed to head up the IRS, of all things.
Then he rails about executive pay. Does it bother anyone else that the president wants to control a citizen's compensation in the marketplace?
I've always had strong reservations about Obama but after the election tried to tell myself maybe he's a pragmatist who will do all right. But so far he's a nightmare.
In only two short weeks, Obama has convinced me he has no idea what he is doing. I've never been more worried about the future of this country. While he was signing the expansion of SCHIP yesterday, with such over-the-top emotional fanfare, he actually said he was going to attack the "problems of smoking and obesity."
Maybe somebody should tell our prez that the funding for his SCHIP program (62 cent tax on a pack of cigarettes) DEPENDS on the creation of 24 million new smokers. If Obama successfully attacks smoking, there is no funding for SCHIP. Duh.
And it almost made me puke when Obama portrayed his $900 billion pork bill as being "for the children." I guess Obama has a point, if you consider bankrupting your children before they reach adulthood a good thing.
Rev says, " don't like Daschle, never have. But he stepped down. Obama, who is not responsible for stuff he doesn't know about, took the blame for the eff-up. What should he have done, slashed his wrists on primetime teevee?"
Maybe Obama could have actually done some vetting of Daschle before he nominated him, like the near impossibility of – finding out where Daschle worked (a lobbying firm in the health care industry). I guess that would have been asking too much.
As for what Obama should have done, larry already answered – Obama should have revoked Geithner's nomination rather than let him be confirmed. Instead, Obama proved his own words about new ethics in government to be false.
I don't like the idea of Obama determining executing compensation levels either, but that's what happens when you let the government in your door. Strings are always attached, like with the mob.
I hear that Goldman-Sachs wants to give the government bailout money back. I hope others follow suit.
Good old Barney already wants to expand the compensation limits.
What might be considered 'federal assistance' in the future? Tax breaks? Roads? National security?
I'd just like to point out to those Obama-lovers who think that Rush Limbaugh is the root of all discontent in the land. I've never seen/heard the man's show. I don't even know if he's on TV, radio, or both. No, my problems with Obama are based on my own observations. I was going to give him a chance, really. Now I see he's worse than I could have imagined.