I wonder if the director of the White House Office of Health Reform will now be someone different than the person who fills the HHS Secretary role. How about Pete Rouse for White House Office of Health Reform? He knows the Senate, and he could probably get informal advice from Daschle who is his former boss. Or is he tainted because he's associated with Daschle?

Are you sure Ezra... this isn't just an emotional reaction on your part, being disappointed? Because I really don't want to be this discouraged.

Fuck.

And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.

-----

Best day for progressives in quite a while.

Man, it sure will be hard to find a new corrupt shill for the insurance companies to replace the old corrupt shill for the insurance companies! A single tear is falling down my face...

"But this whole debacle has been very bad for health reform"

It's precisely because this is so positive for healthcare reform that makes it the best day for progressives in quite a while.

Daschle was always our enemy on healthcare, even if Ezra was too busy sucking up to him to notice or care.

I agree that healthcare momentum has taken a hit, and that Congress will predominate (although maybe it would have anyway).

Also agree that the withdrawal is good for the country and for the Dems.

I suspect (facts may never be known) that Obama and team were pissed that Daschle didn't reveal his tax problems to Obama until weeks after he was publicly nominated.

Speculation on replacement?

I see two kinds of choices: a political choice, like Howard Dean, or a healthcare management choice, with someone from healthcare delivery -- perhaps from some academic medical center.

Dean would freakout the GOP and hearten the progressive base, so that makes too much sense: a former Governor, an MD, and national party candidate and leader and even a centrist on healthcare reform. Won't happen, but nice if it did.

I'm not sure Obama really wanted to have the executive branch dominate this issue. Daschle was there to work with the Senate in the proposed dual role in Cabinet and WH staff.

Baucas, Kennedy, Waxman. Lots of big egos there.

What Petey said. I'm now thinking that it's either has to be radical reform or no reform at all, and if no reform is what Congress and its Big Med paymasters want, then let them pay the price -- and let Obama pay the price too if his heart's not in it.

The last couple of weeks w/ the stimulus has also convinced me that Congress needs to be slapped about a bit. Having someone work the system all buddy-buddy just empowers the biggest shits under the dome. Instead, what's needed is someone who'll make the case to the public, and put the squeeze on Congress.

Howard Dean, you there?

Best day for progressives in quite a while.

Posted by: Petey | February 3, 2009 1:28 PM

Not nearly as good as the day on which, following the revelation that Edwards was a slimy pervert, you decided to shut your stupid yap for a while.

Slimy pervert?

Kinda a leap. Maybe he likes sex or cheated on his wife would have been better.

Because according to your calculations a huge group of Americans - possibly you or your parents included - are slimy perverts.

On the subject of a replacement, how about Ron Wyden? He knows the Senate, he's worked with Republicans on health reform. He might be tasked with shepherding a plan that isn't his own Healthy Americans thing, but that always struck me as an attempt to get something done as soon as possible rather than his ideal. I don't know, what do people think?

Best day for progressives in quite a while.

Goddamnit, Petey, I was feeling all right about this until you said that. With your record of predictions, I'm guessing Ezra's right after all.

Hey Ezra, how's your tax situation? Now that there's an opening...

It seems that jeff thinks that lying to one's own party, betraying a terminally ill wife and corruptly using campaign funds for one's mistress are simply the daily activities of the average American. Why do you hate us so much, jeff? Are you a jealous Canadian?

Assuming we want a HHS Sec with similar qualifications (i.e. legislative skill and Senate connections), Ron Wyden? But that creates an open seat in a state that's not particularly safe. Ted Kennedy would've made an excellent choice, if his health were better. It's a shame. Daschle was almost uniquely qualified.

Damnit. Big blow.

I can't think of any other people who can fill the slot. Perhaps Jeanne Lambrew will get the promotion to take Daschle's health reform job and someone will be chosen just to administer HHS like Shalala

Arrgh. It doesn't matter which corporate-friendly shill is found to replace Daschle in this corporate-friendly administration b/c the only chance we have to get real health care reform lies with the people's willingness to demand it. Judging from the difficultly we're having outperforming the right on the stimulus package (an easy lift), I don't hold out a lot of hope for anything good to happen on the health care front. My best guess right now (with or without Daschle at HHS) is that we're going to end up with a giant Medicare Part D scam, that simply funnels money into the insurance companies' unregulated pockets. Without at least an optional public health insurance plan in place, that's a guaranteed outcome of any change to our failed market system.

Daschle wasn't going to get us that. Dean won't get us that. Nobody is going to get us that but us. 100 calls/day should be going into every member of Congress' office insisting that a public health insurance plan is part of any reform effort. Make that happen where you live. Waiting around to see who will replace Daschle is a parlor game that gets us nowhere.

You reacted too quickly. This is great news; perhaps it came from the strong editorial against him by the NY Times. Glenn Greenwald overstated the case against Daschle, but he was basically right. Daschle was an insider and a lobbyist enabler if not a registered lobbyist. The new secretary must not be a Washington insider because all stakeholders will have to give up a lot- we’ll need idealism from doctors, nurses and hospitals and a little bit of communitarians from patients- we can't -not you, not me- get every monoclonal antibody that "might help" if we are dying of metastasis cancer. Doctors need to feel a pressure from their peers to act for the good of the community, not to put money above all else, as must have occurred when the doc or docs implanted 8 embryos into the womb of Ms. Suleman. Maybe she’ll make enough money from TV, books etc to support the kids but the chances are high that many of those tiny babies will end up in special education with a truncated adult occupational role. Healthcare reform must come because its lack is aggravating our grave economic crisis.

I would split those jobs that Daschle was to hold, Secy could be Tom Ridge, maybe even Sheila Bair or better yet a University or Hospital President. Mayo Clinic CEO Denis Cortese would be good for Secretary or, if not that, chief of the very important Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Mark Yudof of the University of California or Dr. Herb Pardes of Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital also come to mind. I think that the secretary or the CMS chief should be an MD- you don’t realize how bad the morale of US physicians and nurses is today and how discouraged we are about help from state governments.

Before appointing Rouse, be sure that he’s not in bed with the insurance companies. Those bastards are the biggest impediment to real reform. And yes, every member of the House must get hundreds of phone calls from voters in his/her district demanding reform or it won't happen.

This has nothing to do with ethics and everything to do with political scalp hunting.

I fail to see what point is served by this, seemingly innocuous mistake on a guy who paid millions in taxes. Who is qualified for public service if a guy who self-confessed to a tax error, paid MORE taxes than what was owed and apologized is unfit to serve because he is seen as unethical.

If anything there is more to be concerned with in the large speaking fees and ties to various health care industry organizations. I don't necessarily think they were bad, but the substantive discussions should have been about that and not this millionaire's rounding error of ommission.

Best thing for Obama will be to sit quite for a while; until both the Stimulus Bill and TARP 2 are out of the gate. Let the dust settle, let him take a global view here and then make a new start. There is no point to rush at this time.

It could be hyperbola that it is 'best day' for progressives. What it is, for a traditional media like NYT - it is a shot in arm.

Not a big blow at all. The reason Daschle fell, and why he would have been a very bad choice, is his corrupt lobbying for any and all clients. He simply would never have been reliable on health reform,and would also have looked terrible as far as clean government went.

http://www.rollingstone.com/blogs/taibbiunbound/2008/12/the-whore-factor.php

As Taibbi said:

"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."

Hey, eRobin, do you think that American Prospect readers haven't heard that "we're the ones we've been waiting for" before? We get it. But I'm pretty sure cynicism and angry posturing assuming the worst in people is not going to help.

"..the grandfather of Obama's political career." grandpa got run over by a reindeer. bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha taxes are for suckers and I will raise yours to implement my whim ha ha ha bwa ha

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/01/daschle/index.html

You can't let someone like Daschle go anywhere near a position of executive responsibility. The taxes don't matter, but the cruising for cash at the Washington Swill Clinic is not acceptable.

What Petey said. I'm now thinking that it's either has to be radical reform or no reform at all, and if no reform is what Congress and its Big Med paymasters want, then let them pay the price -- and let Obama pay the price too if his heart's not in it.

It's this kind of thinking that makes me ill. I'm a sick man -- I've had cancer twice, and I suffer from MS. Despite being a combat vet, I'm only covered 30% through the VA, and I have no possibility of insurance because of my pre-existing conditions. I depend, in large part, on the charity of others to pay for my medications.

Because what's possible doesn't conform to what you want, you'd have me suffer.

Your response is going to be that my argument isn't with you, it's with The Powers That Be.

From my vantage point, it doesn't really matter who's to blame. Blame won't bring relief to my body, wracked with pain & stiffness.

From my vantage point, we as a country have tried this project since the Truman Administration, and two things have been a constant -- conservatives and their hand-maidens, who don't believe in any kind of reform, and folks like you, who believe in nothing but the largest, most radical overhaul. Together, you've both worked to make it so that no reform gets out of the gate.

I'm tired of this. I'd rather have 20% of health care coverage, than 100% of none -- because the door has now been opened to the possibility of 100% health care coverage.

I'm with Ezra on this -- my chances of seeing this happen were cut considerably today.

"Because what's possible doesn't conform to what you want, you'd have me suffer."

I think the chances of enacting universal healthcare this year just went up substantially.

I think Ezra has utterly misread Daschle for reasons not worth getting into here.

I'm happy Daschle went down precisely because I thought he was the stumbling block in getting you access to the healthcare system.

What rn said.
I have a decent job, with what passes for decent insurance coverage these days, and my medical bills have broke me. I have a chronic illness with no cure and very little in the way of effective treatment, but I drag my ass to work each day so I can cling on to that crappy insurance. I navigate an absurd maze of co-pays and forms and overcharges and still pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket for medicine every month. I am agonizing for anything in the way of positive change in national health care. Yet two weeks into the Obama administration I see waves of cynical contrarian types reaching for the suicide potion because "Obama has failed us all!!!111!!"
We've just barely got this ball rolling, we have to keep pushing hard to get it to move.

I'd rather have 20% of health care coverage, than 100% of none

That's not sustainable. That's like asking for half a dose of radiotherapy on the nation: it's enough to give you the side-effects but not enough to kill the cancer.

Big Med wants the government to provide palliative solutions, just as Big Finance wants the state to buy the risk and leave it the reward.

I don't think Petey's right in his predictions for this year, because he's Petey. I do think that what will be demanded of Congress from the public this year is going to be harder for the pigs in the trough to water down to satisfy their paymasters.

eRobin, in case you haven't noticed, the Democrats aren't even trying on the stimulus bill. It's looking increasingly like politics is nothing but a rigged game. Two parties serving one master, one honestly, the other playing 'washington generals' to the former's globetrotters. Nobody is this inept unless they want to be.

What we are seeing is the fruits of Obama's 'live and let live' approach. If he had punished dissenters within the party when he had the chance, the traitors among us would be cowed now. But he forgave Lieberman. He placed have the DLC in his cabinet.

I've said it before. Obama has chosen failure. I don't know why, I assume it's an ideological devotion to centrism, but failure is exactly where we are headed. God Save America, it's obvious nobody else will.

It's healthy young punks like Ezra (and the woman he once worshiped, Hillary) who are pushing for the maximum. They are quite heartless, with their millenial schemes.

When it comes to the money Daschle received from the health care industry, I have to agree with the take on it from Frank Watson, Loan Collector:

"Faschle got screwed. Health insurance providers can afford a lot more than that."

"I don't think Petey's right in his predictions for this year"

I may be wrong and I may be right, but the reason I'm dancing on the grave of Daschle is precisely because I think it makes it more likely that we'll get a universal healthcare bill this year.

I actually think that's the most important thing, in part because cases like rn's are real human lives that matter, and in part because I think the real progress on healthcare won't start until we enshrine universality into law.

-----

That said, I also agree with pseudonymous in nc on the general principle that removing Daschle from the process will tilt the healthcare conversation toward more progressive ground.

Also, Dallas is certain to crush Golden State.

Daschle was part of the disease that is Inside-Politicitosus. Symptoms and treatment: when Daschle gets an itch, health insurance companies pour money down his pants. Glad he's outta there. Now, that's change I can believe in!!

Backing Daschle is like backing ObamaCare: moderate to the point of being useless. Backing both was typical of the fauxgressives and pseudo-libs like Klein.
….Obama has chosen failure….rovelite
You realize that now after you were so enthused during the election and so busy smearing any who disagreed about The One? Nuts2u.

"Also, Dallas is certain to crush Golden State."

Hey, 95% of the time, Dallas does crush Golden State.

Predictions are like quantum mechanics. You can't tell where a particle is, you can only give probabilities.

I aver that my prediction in that series was correct, despite being proved wrong. All that said, I bet my own money on politics, while I just watch hoops for fun...

The administration will now spend time finding a new nominee, vetting him or her, waiting while they build trust and relationships in the administration and on the Hill, and so forth. I'd say the chances of health reform happening in 2009 -- and thus at all -- are lower now than a week ago. This also makes it more likely that the process is Congress-driven as opposed to White House driven.

but
Obama = change!

the general principle that removing Daschle from the process will tilt the healthcare conversation toward more progressive ground.

I'll revise and extend, because it's not simply a question of whether the conversation is more progressive, but whether the legislative sausage-making is conducted in the context of a public conversation in which the needs of people like rn get aired.

The Daschle approach, working the margins for what's legislatively acceptable to all the people who currently have skin in the game, would have been a debate conducted in the abstract, in which the main question was one of begging for concessions from the people who currently cream off the profits of private healthcare.

Well, fuck that for a lark.

Hey, eRobin, do you think that American Prospect readers haven't heard that "we're the ones we've been waiting for" before? We get it. But I'm pretty sure cynicism and angry posturing assuming the worst in people is not going to help.

I'm not angry. If anything, I'm bored.

We'll see who gets it. I'm hearing from Senate staffers that the calls re: the stimulus package are running by huge numbers in favor of those opposed. That simply is not a good sign for the coming health care fight, which will require much stronger and more sustained action at the grassroots level. I'm not sure we have it in us.

a huge group of Americans - possibly you or your parents included - are slimy perverts.

I think that's already well established. Thanks, Google!

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