Feeds: 
symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.
TOM DASCHLE: THE POLITICAL PROBLEM.
Tom Daschle did not pay more than $128,000 in taxes for the use of a car and driver provided to him by a consulting firm. He paid the back taxes, and nearly $12,000 in interest, last month. Today, Daschle sent a letter to the Finance Committee, which will be considering his nomination. He explains:
Last fall, when I was being considered for this position, the Presidential Transition Team’s vetters reviewed my records. During the course of those reviews, the vetting team flagged charitable contributions they felt were deducted in error. When my accountant realized I would need to file amended returns, he suggested addressing another matter I had raised with him earlier in the year: whether the use of a car service offered to me by a close friend might be a tax issue. In December, my accountant advised me that it should be reported as imputed income in the amended returns.
At about the same time, the friend’s company, a consulting client, informed my accountant of a clerical error it had made on the Form 1099 it provided to me and reported to the IRS for 2007. In an effort to ensure full compliance and the most complete disclosure possible of my personal finances, we remedied these issues by filing amended tax returns with full payments, including interest. We provided all this information to the Committee in addition to the completed Committee questionnaire and my responses to your staff’s questions. I disclosed this information to the Committee voluntarily, and paid the taxes and any interest owed promptly. My mistakes were unintentional.
Given Daschle's wealth and influence, it's hard to believe that he actually meant to defraud the government of $100,000 at the cost of any political future he might ever wish to have. The car and driver provided by Hindery's firm did not come with a 1099 form. It's a stupid error, but there is a strong case to be made that it was an error. And the Senate wants to make that case.
The problem is that Daschle's tax problems come in the aftermath of Tim Geithner's tax problems. Unpaid taxes are becoming the illegal nannies of the Obama administration. The GOP is flailing right now. No one should be giving Republican House Whip Eric Cantor lines like "it’s easy for the other side to advocate for higher taxes because you know what? They don’t pay 'em."
The first question is whether this will derail Daschle's nomination. Probably not. An issue like this could go either way. What tips the odds in Daschle's favor is that the Senate is a chummy place and Daschle is well-liked within its walls. "If all you knew about Tom Daschle was that he used to be a senator and he made a mistake and had to pay over $100,000 in back taxes, you would have a right to be skeptical, even cynical," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin. "But if you know Tom Daschle, you know better."
The Senate knows Tom Daschle. He gets the benefit of the doubt. Similar statements of support have come from Ted Kennedy's office, John Kerry's office, and even Bob Dole's office. "I read the record about the tax issues raised, and while mistakes were made they were innocent ones which have been corrected primarily by Senator Daschle himself," said the former Republican majority leader. Dole will be introducing Daschle before his confirmation hearing later this week.
The second question is whether this should derail Daschle's nomination. Will Daschle make it through the Senate but be rendered useless as leadership on this issue? Here, too, the answer is probably not. No one has sketched a plausible future in which Daschle's tax problems don't disrupt his confirmation but do poison the administration's health reform effort six months down the line. Indeed, watching his Senate colleagues rally around him actually underscores Daschle's fitness for the job. Daschle is uniquely respected by this former colleagues and appears able to ensure himself a more than fair hearing even under less than ideal circumstances. Watching Daschle's former colleagues leap to his defense and attest to his integrity and fairness, it's hard to argue that this isn't the guy you want convincing and cajoling and reassuring nervous senators when health reform turns hard. You want the guy who gets the benefit of the doubt. You want the guy they viscerally trust, the guy they believe even when the obvious political move is to discount his testimony. This whole thing speaks rather poorly of Tom Daschle but rather well of his skills for this job.
COMMENTS (16)
> The second question is
> whether this should derail
> Daschle's nomination. Will
> Daschle make it through the
> Senate but be rendered
> useless as leadership on this
> issue? Here, too, the answer
> is probably not.
Interesting that your use of the word "should" implies that the only question is one of future political viability. We have these things called "laws" in the United States, and when ordinary Citizens violate them they find themselves facing investigation, sanction, arrest, conviction, jail, etc. I am curious where exactly in the Constitution it defines what level of aristocracy one much reach before one is immune to the consequences of violating laws, regulations, etc? Duke? Earl? Lord?
Cranky
Posted by: Cranky Observer | February 2, 2009 7:57 AM
Corrupt bipartisan senators covering for a corrupt, corporate crony.
America really is a failed experiment.
Posted by: soullite | February 2, 2009 8:11 AM
Any thoughts about Glenn Greenwald's recent smackdown of Mr. Daschle?
Posted by: Emma | February 2, 2009 8:14 AM
"The problem is that Daschle's tax problems come in the aftermath of Tim Geithner's tax problems. Unpaid taxes are becoming the illegal nannies of the Obama administration. The GOP is flailing right now. No one should be giving Republican House Whip Eric Cantor lines like "it’s easy for the other side to advocate for higher taxes because you know what? They don’t pay 'em."
I hope Daschle does the right thing and withdraws.
But I doubt he will. He will remain, will get confirmed, and be a perma-liability. And Obama is too indebted to him to tell him to do the right thing.
Unlike Ezra, I am not a Daschle fan. The news that Daschle was going to be the "healthcare czar" was understood to be a blow to universal healthcare by anyone who actually pays attention to Washington.
How Ezra doesn't get this is beyond me.
But Ezra has a fetish for high-minded goo-goos who are ineffectual, so perhaps that accounts for his willingness to yet again pimp for the anti-universal healthcare forces when the battle is actually joined.
Posted by: Petey | February 2, 2009 8:29 AM
I've never rooted for Max Baucus to publicly smack another Democrat in my life, but I'm rooting for Baucus to come out against Daschle in the next 48 hours...
Posted by: Petey | February 2, 2009 8:31 AM
"This whole thing speaks rather poorly of Tom Daschle but rather well of his skills for this job."
Shorter Ezra: I like high-minded ineffectual goo-goos who have been insiders for long enough that official Washington doesn't mind their personal corruption.
Even Shorter Ezra: I have no principles other than my own career.
Posted by: Petey | February 2, 2009 8:35 AM
"america really is a failed experiment."
it is surely looking that way.
the depth of greed, dishonesty and entitlement is sickening.
and it has run right into the cabinet choices.
why are these people all back in power?
the economists who watched this happen are now the people in charge.
the corporate world is rotted..our food supply is not being monitored.
richardson, daschle, the clintons, edwards and scores more....profiting, evading, lying, abusing and putting themselves above the public trust.
no accountability...and these are our esteemed leaders.
like scum on a pond.
what wont these people do for and with money and power?
clearly, the answer is nothing.
not to mention the ones who preside over the corporate world and lobbies and the bush administration.
with each passing day, the stories grow worse.
and as the economy worsens, i marvel....that restaurants appear full...mall parking lots are full. there still looks to be a lot of cognitive dissonance in this country.
not to mention what religious forces have done to this country and their influence on every level of policymaking.
it makes one feel impotent and voiceless in the face of this implosion.
Posted by: jacqueline | February 2, 2009 8:58 AM
This whole thing speaks rather poorly of Tom Daschle but rather well of his skills for this job.
Now that's an interesting job recommendation. His skills are how others react to him then?
Posted by: Anonymous | February 2, 2009 9:11 AM
I don't know, Petey. If this guy really has the pull to help us get health care through, I don't care how many livestock he's been naughty with. And I think there's some evidence of pull here.
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | February 2, 2009 11:49 AM
Jacqueline is all too correct that America is a failed experiment—thanks to the thoroughly corrupt, cynical, elitist, ruthless, and often fatuous Establishment that has an anti-democratic iron grip on politics, business, education, the media, cultural production, and almost all other significant areas of national life. Forgot the starry-eyed hope that this politician or that celebrity is going to be different, is going to care about truth, justice, beauty, peace, love, or anything else that is decent in human existence. Forget it. The entire Establishment is rotten, rotten, rotten to the very core. There are no messiahs here and won’t be any either. The rest of us are mere subjects (read: powerless hostages) of this horrible Establishment, at its mercy for our livelihoods and our very lives. There is undoubtedly an implosion coming that will destroy so much of the corrupt “achievements” of this Establishment—and after all, what institution, what social or economic or political structure is really worth saving at this point? That implosion is only another phase of the new Dark Age we have already been living in for decades, a precipitous decline in civilization known by asinine, baleful characteristics such as “globalization” and the “high tech” and “post-modernity.” The problem is that the implosion will destroy many of us too, and there will be little solace for the starving, angst-ridden masses in seeing the bloated corpses of the Establishment dangling from lamp posts that remain unlit due to the lack of electric power.
Posted by: Ozzie S. | February 2, 2009 12:40 PM
Ezra Klein,
Shame on you!!
You have no standards. Obama and his appointees should be held to the highest ethical standard, no ifs, ands or buts and no exceptions.
You've become a cynical apologist for sleazy, dishonest, illegal behavior.
Posted by: JK | February 2, 2009 2:26 PM
According to Ezra, the fact that Daschle is a corrupt hack recommends him for his current post because it will make him more effective in selling the administration's programs to other corrupt hacks in Congress. Sweet land of liberty!
Posted by: scott | February 2, 2009 3:29 PM
With the Geithner & Daschle tax "scandals" both coming out within weeks of each other, shouldn't someone (on I don't know, say Congressional Republicans) launch a special investigation into the tax filings of these Washington consultants? Seems like these tax filling errors might be systemic.
Posted by: Mike | February 2, 2009 5:30 PM
Neil, you really think a bunch of scumbags this corrupt has any interest at all in making life better for anyone but themselves and their stock broker?
Get real. Obama has chosen to fail. You need to deal with that, because if you are stupid enough to wrap your arms around him at this point he's going to take you and the rest of this sorry, sycophantic movement with him.
Posted by: soullite | February 2, 2009 5:40 PM
Mike, at least on Geithner's mistake, the IRS already knows it is systemic (a statistic I read in the Boston Globe said something like 50% of simularly situated professionals made the same mistake) and they have instituted an amnesty program. The program turns out to have not been operating for the years Geithner had problems with, but I'm not sure what else you'd be looking for...
Posted by: Ravi | February 2, 2009 5:52 PM
why are these people all back in power?
because people like you would not listen to reason during the primary...thank yourself
Posted by: Anonymous | February 3, 2009 9:47 AM