Via Huffington Post Tom Daschle says he’s “deeply embarrassed and disappointed about his failure to pay more than $120,000 in taxes. President Barack Obama's pick to head the Health and Human Services Department apologized for his mistake in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee.
Former Senate colleagues on Sunday described Daschle as a popular public servant knowledgeable in health issues, yet they wondered how he could find himself in a tax mess _ and why the matter escaped Obama's team of background checkers.
The greatest strength of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is his insider’s knowledge of the upper chamber. But as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for secretary of Health and Human Services, Daschle also could present serious challenges in the form of old grudges and partisan paybacks.
Daschle is known around town as a wily political operator who understands, in a way that few can, how to pass legislation. As a former three-term senator from South Dakota, Daschle knows the institution, the people and their thinking. He has also become something of a health care expert.
Via Glenn Greenwald How serious Obama is about health care reform remains to be seen Obama supporters argue that Obama needs someone like Daschle, with credibility within the health care industry, in order to achieve real reform. That's the standard explanation for most of what Obama does (he's only courting the establishment in order to change it), and though highly skeptical, I'm personally willing to withhold judgment until the actual evidence
But there's no need to withhold judgment on Daschle himself. He embodies everything that is sleazy, sickly, and soul-less about Washington. It's probably impossible for Obama to fill his cabinet with individuals entirely free of Beltway filth -- it's extremely rare to get anywhere near that system without being infected by it -- but Daschle oozes Beltway slime from every pore.
Via Matt Taibbi Regarding Daschle, remember, we're talking about a guy who not only was a consultant for one of the top health-care law firms in the country, but a board member of the Mayo Clinic (a major recipient of NIH grants) and the husband of one of America's biggest defense lobbyists — wife Linda Hall lobbies for Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. Does anyone really think that this person is going to come up with a health care proposal that in any way cuts into the profits of the major health care companies?
Via Melissa McEwan On the plus side, Daschle has (literally) written the book on the healthcare crisis. He knows the ins and outs of Congress and how to get shit done.
On the other hand, Daschle is definitely not as lefty as I'd like to see with regard to socializing healthcare and not running it through corporate America; instead, he favors a Federal Health Board, which would "create a management infrastructure to integrate our public and private health-care systems."
Via Tom Daschle Read his own words: Progressive Solutions to America's Health-Care Crisis
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