Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Oh Tom, it's corner time!

So Daschle is gone.

Good riddance. Buh bye.

The president's appointments are a concern. Love the guy, but vet much? Two withdraw, one damaged.

Long-time senator? Sure. Rumored to be a decent guy? Yes.

BUT, he was the ultimate Democratic enabler of the Bush nightmare of civil liberties abuses.

He raked in millions from interests that he might be regulating. He had a CHAUFFEUR and a luxury car. He took private jets to exotic locations. He "endorsed" Obama and couldn't deliver South Dakota for Obama in the primary?

His explanation from a spokesman was "Mr. Daschle told committee staff he had become used to having a car and driver as Senate majority leader and did not think to report the perquisite on his taxes, according to staff members."

Right. Drivers, private jets, you know--regular stuff. Stuff all of us would never consider to be "pay."

So, former Sen. Daschle:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I genuinely thought Obama could never be this dumb. Do you suppose he ever took the time to sit down with Daschele and said, "Now before I appoint you, old friend, is there anything - ANYTHING - in your recent past that could be used to make us look really bad?"

Makes me, a major Obama supporter, a wee bit nervous.

Len

Carlos said...

He was also the ultimate insider (which, paradoxically, is what you need to navigate the treacherous Congressional waters and pass something so huge as universal health care) and an acknowledged expert on health care reform (wrote a book about it). Which are the reasons the President picked him in the first place.

To cut Obama some slack, no other administration in history has filled cabinet posts so quickly, given the urgency of our financial crisis. And no other administration has held itself up to such high standards.

I hope the next HHR designee will be a strong proponent/expert on health care reform.