still, Daschle ought to get a big democratic kick in the keister for wasting so much time and raising so many questions needlessly. knucklehead.

I really think Daschle & Killefer, and the Obama people are capitulating too easily on these pseudoscandals. Wasn't this the exact same issue as for Christie Todd Whitman, and wasn't she confirmed easily?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0D91F3DF937A15752C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Nobody is perfect, and the Obama people should not try to pretend that they're perfect, or expect perfection from the people under them. Just do your (rather important) jobs as best you can, please: Please don't worry about how you look, what the neighbours will think, being angelic role models or being precious paragons of ethical & moral perfection.

Stop worrying about the "appearance of impropriety", and start worrying about actual impropriety.

And it's worth noting that if you're being harsh and judgemental and following the letter of the law, Schwarzenegger was in violation of immigration law when he first came to this country. But the Republicans don't throw their people away as easily as Democrats seem to. Republicans are willing to fight for their people.

http://www.visalaw.com/03sep4/15sep403.html

roublen - I see your point, but Daschle and Kiliefer make 3 people with tax problems nominated for the Cabinet, and then there's Bill R.

I think it would be different if this was an isolated person.

And yes, there is a populist rage brewing, but is the right solution for the populist rage to implement good policies which actually help people and improve their lives, or is the right solution to offer the raging populace a few ritual sacrifices, so they can be appeased and reassured that 2 or 3 ostracized elites are suffering as badly as they are?

Is it too much to say that if Daschle didn't have the stomach for this fight then he probably didn't have the stomach for the next one?

Does anyone think he could have shepherded through a decent universal health care plan without getting whacked in the media by UHC's opponents?

As to whether this is a net gain or loss, it could still go either way (depending in large part on who the replacement is), but this job needs a fighter, and Daschle just ran away from the first skirmish.

I say keep the populist rage going, and heat it up considerably. I don't see anyone in this country throwing shoes. I don't see any equivalent to the Bonus March, and we're nearly in the situation those guys were in.

It's perfectly possible to get people into government positions who will "implement good policies which actually help people and improve their lives." FDR didn't do too badly at that, but Obama up to now (and I realize it's only been a couple of weeks) has been doing a pretty bad job of it.

Wait till this depression gets a bit worse, and you'll see populist rage that will singe your hair off.

These comments all seem to miss the (massively important) point, which is explained here:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/01/daschle/index.html

I take Ezra'a word that Daschle had the skills, but this kind of sleazing with big industry is one of the factors at the heart of the health care problem. And my guess is that the "didn't have the stomach for it" press release is miles from the reality.

To my eyes, Daschle stepping down is some of the best and most unexpected bits of news this year.

And it seems to me that inevitably you have one of two different cultures when it somes to disclosure and vetting. You can have people disclose everything, and then be lenient, or you can punish known transgressions harshly, but then people will stop disclosing things during vetting that they aren't forced to. I think that's what might happen now to the Obama administration.

And if Obama would agonize as much over fucking killing people as much as he says he agonized over "unintentionally sending a message on tax enforcement", his presidency might be off to a better start.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/02/suicide-bomber-kills-25-policemen-in.html

"but then people will stop disclosing things during vetting that they arent forced to."

maybe in the future, this will give some pause to leaders who characterize their arrogant choices as "careless mistakes" and continue to reap rewards and "get away with it."
i wish that geithner, clinton and holder were not in high positions in this adminisration..
none of them deserved to pass the vetting process, in my opinion.

..they are no different from daschle.

their supposed competence and skillfulness does not alone create a standard of excellence, or make up for their arrogance and flawed character.
daschle did the right thing. and they all should have too.
but at least, this is a start.

i wish that geithner, clinton and holder were not in high positions in this adminisration..none of them deserved to pass the vetting process, in my opinion...they are no different from daschle.

What problems came up during Hillary's vetting? Are you out of your gourd? Wait, never mind, I know the answer.

The real problem with Tom Daschle is that he is a fucking loser. Always has been, always will be.

And what pisses me off about the Obama administration so far is that I see the best people in the Democratic party (Wes Clark, Howard Dean, Dean Baker, Juan Cole) being systematically excluded from influence. And the reason, it seems to me, is that the best people realize that sometimes you're obligated to be the skunk at the garden party, in order to accomplish something important for the people outside the garden party. There are a substantial number of military people who hate Wes Clark because he ruffled a few feathers during Kosovo. But instead of valuing people like Clark properly, instead of valuing intellectual integrity and making the right decisions, Obama is instead valuing the Washington DC conventional wisdom.

What angers me about the decision to approve the airstrikes on Pakistan is that Obama did not really think it through, he seems to have approved the airstrikes out of fear that Bob Gates would call him a hippie if he didn't (if he did it it think it through, he provided no evidence of it in his public statements).

Howard Dean.

"what problems came up during hillary's vetting."

favoritism and royalty prevailed, and in my opinion, there was an inadequate disclosure of the clinton's financial dealings and conflicts of interest that should certainly have precluded her from being secretary of state.
geithner had the shoddiness and nerve to apologize for his "careless mistake" on his tax returns while he will oversee the economic health of our country.
and holder doesnt deserve to be in his position after the pardon that he gave.
all apologies should have been accepted and they all should have found jobs elsewhere.
in my opinion.
not change that can be believed in.

so, thank you, tom daschle ,for doing the right thing, unlike these counterparts.

". . .ruffled a few feathers during Kosovo. . ."

and I meant to add Rwanda, where Clark is the only person in the military establishment I know of to express remorse that he did not push more strongly for intervention.

apologies, I won't post any more on this thread.

won't stop or won't pause for the road of health care

"Skunk at the garden party" is exactly right, except that it's the garden party that stinks, not the skunk. The garden party that is the governing circle never did smell like a rose, and its odor greatly deteriorated in the last eight years, but it doesn't look like Obama is the man to do the job of deodorizing things.

The big problem is not that these guys or their accountants are careless about their taxes. It's that they are always the "executive committee of the ruling class," and Barack is now the executive chairman of the executive committee. Unless he turns into a "skunk," you aren't going to see any appreciable change in the next eight years.