Analyzing Daschle's Withdrawal

In August, I wrote about how Obama's arrogance could become a fatal flaw. The recent problems with the nominations of Tim Geittner, Tom Daschle and Nancy Kellifer expose the first manifestation of the serious problem that his arrogance will cause. President Obama seems to have thought that he could get three different nominees through Congress even though each had a prior tax problem. Even as the tax problems came to light, he continued to back each and every nominee. He dismissed these problems as minor.

What's worse is that he has done all this even though he ran on a platform of somehow being different. It seems that President Obama is either oblivious of how duplicitous this looks or he simply doesn't care. Either way, this is the manifestation of serious arrogance.

Now, in the short term, he will take a political hit. Ultimately, no one is going to vote based on the failure of several nomination. Still, where this will be a problem is in the leverage he will lose in crafting the stimulus bill. Just as the stimulus bill faces its most stiff opposition, President Obama has lost serious short term political capital.

What's really troubling about it all is the pattern forming of hypocrisy and duplicitousness in this decision. These three nominations show a great hypocrisy about a President who claims that he will do things differently. Yet, he also pledged to exclude lobbyists from his administration and yet nearly twenty former lobbyists are already in his cabinet.

He lectured Americans about turning down the thermostat during the campaign, and now we find out that that President Obama is turning up the thermostat in the White House. Such consistent hypocrisy is the manifestation of a large amount of arrogance. It's as though the President believes that he can do and say just about anything and get away with it all. He can nominate three people with prior tax problems and no one will care. He can create a zero tolerance policy for lobbyists and proceed to hire more than one former lobbyist daily. He can tell people to turn down their own thermostat and then turn it up himself.

It appears that President Obama just fell in love with the message he was delivering, but is further evident that he has no intention of delivering on that message. Such is the manifestation of arrogance that ultimately becomes fatal.

The Daschle Scandal Expands

I recently spoke with someone that thought highly of Nixon's Presidency. I asked him why Nixon didn't immediately go to the Attorney General and rat out all the perpetrators of the Watergate break in. He said that these were his friends and colleagues and that he felt a loyalty to protect them. Dick Morris once said something perceptive about the Presidency in this regard. Dick Morris said that Presidents need to be cut throat and ruthless. Presidents need to be able to cut their friends and loyal confidants loose as soon as they become a liability to their own Presidency. This is no easy task. No one becomes President without having a very deep appreciation for loyalty. Yet, once President, nothing is more important than the job of being President.

This brings me to the latest revelation in the scandal surrounding Tom Daschle.

Daschle reportedly waited nearly a month after being nominated to be secretary of health and human services before informing President Obama that he had not paid years of back taxes.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that Daschle paid $140,000 in back taxes and interest to the U.S. Treasury on Jan. 2, and about two days later informed the White House and the Senate Finance Committee, the White House confirmed to the Post.

In other words, Daschle held all of this information back until after being nominated. This is unthinkable and clearly shows that Daschle cares more about his own ambitions than he does about the success of the Presidency.

That's why it should be not only stunning but troubling that President Obama continues to support Daschle. Often it is in the best interest of the President to cut loose those that deserve loyalty. President Bush would have done his Presidency much good by cutting Donald Rumsfeld loose long before 2006. Here Daschle has shown he deserves no loyalty at all. Instead of expressing outrage and immediatley dropping Daschle, President Obama had dug his heals in.

As such, between the nomination of Tim Geittner and Daschle, the Obama Presidency is sending the message that tax impropriety is perfectly acceptable. That isn't new or hopeful but corrupt. This is the worst of politics. It means the powerful can get away with whatever they want and face absolutely no consequences. Both Daschle and Geittner are now a heartbeat away from the most powerful person in the world, even though both committed offenses the rest of us would have faced financial punishments that would have crushed us if we had committed.

Daschle must be removed because not removing him sends a message that the White House accepts corruption, it accepts cheating, and it accepts behavior that would put the rest of us in an untennable position. Such is not the message of a White House that stands for hope, change, and a new kind of politics.

The Republicans Must Draw the Line on Daschle

I believe the Republicans rolled over on the nomination of Tim Geittner but at least there that was a somewhat tough call. With regards to the news that just came out on the nominee for HHS, Tom Daschle.

ABC News has learned that the nomination of former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to be President Obama's secretary of health and human services has hit a traffic snarl on its way through the Senate Finance Committee.

The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend -- a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring it on his taxes.

It remains an open question as to whether this is a "speed bump," as a Democratic Senate ally of Daschle put it, or something more damaging.

This is no speed bump. This is something that must disqualify Daschle from serving. He used a car service that he didn't claim on his taxes. That isn't an oversight, but a cover up. There is a much larger principel here. If Daschle is allowed to serve, we are basically excusing almost anything. We are saying that most any prior transgression is fine as long as the President is popular enough. Such a message would encourage corruption exponentially. It cannot be allowed. The Republicans must stand up to this nomination and make sure it doesn't pass.