Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary.
Right...breaking the law wasn't any big deal, but distractions...well, that would be terrible.That's according to a joint White House statement from President Barack Obama and his former nominee.
Obama said Tuesday he accepted the withdrawal "with sadness and regret."
Daschle has been battling for his nomination since it was disclosed he failed to pay more than $120,000 in taxes.
He said he's withdrawing because he's not a leader who has the full faith of Congress and will be a distraction.(link)
While this is good news in terms of preemptively derailing universal health care, it'll still come up again. I'm sure Obama will find another nanny-state control freak to fill in soon enough.
Powerline offers a suggestion to the Obamessiah for a replacement:
Maybe President Obama should do what he did following Bill Richardson's withdrawal as the Commerce Secretary nominee -- look to a Republican. There's a better chance of avoiding an ethics problem that way.
In related news, Nancy Killefer has withdrawn her name for Obama's Chief Performance Officer due to...[drum roll, please]...tax problems! No joke:
Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.
Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.
Hot Air points out a rather obvious sign of troublesome trends:Follow the timeline here. Daschle knew he had a tax problem last June; Geithner knew he had a tax problem no later than November. Killefer's problem dates to 2005. Point being, none of this came as any eleventh-hour surprise to Obama's vetters … and yet all three were nominated anyway. Exit question: Why?
My answer would be that he doesn't feel it's a big deal to dodge taxes - we're now learning that most high-level Democrats apparently don't. Maybe someone should check to see if Obama has paid all of his own. They're probably confused as to why schlubs like you and me get mad about this piddly stuff.
Interestingly -- and not without merit -- Larry Kudlow is calling for Geithner to step down in the light of the proper withdrawals of Daschle and Killefer:
Geithner never answered the question put to him by senators Kyl and Bunning: Would he have paid his back taxes if he were not nominated to run the Treasury? His issue has never been resolved. He will never have the full trust of the country.
Consider this: Daschle said today that he would not have been able to lead a reform of the nation's health-care system "with the full faith of Congress and the American people." Well, Geithner will not be able to lead a reform of the nation's financial system either. Mr. Geithner will not have the full faith of the American people or Congress, where 31 no votes were cast against his nomination — by far the largest nay vote for a post-WWII Treasury secretary.
...Geithner is the chief performance officer of the U.S. economy. What does it say about him, that he neglected to pay taxes? What does it say to ordinary Americans that Geithner was in effect a tax cheat right up to the point he was appointed to one of the highest offices in the land? Will he ever be trusted? It is doubtful.
For all of Mr. Geithner's apparent skills and knowledge and other professional qualifications, he still has a tremendous ethical problem. Pres. Obama has made much of the need for a new era of responsibility and ethics. Obama is right. But Mr. Geithner is wrong. He should follow Daschle and Killefer by submitting his resignation.
This is a matter of personal character and accountability. It is a matter of honesty. Too many of our leaders suffer big deficits in these areas.
Consider this: Daschle said today that he would not have been able to lead a reform of the nation's health-care system "with the full faith of Congress and the American people." Well, Geithner will not be able to lead a reform of the nation's financial system either. Mr. Geithner will not have the full faith of the American people or Congress, where 31 no votes were cast against his nomination — by far the largest nay vote for a post-WWII Treasury secretary.
...Geithner is the chief performance officer of the U.S. economy. What does it say about him, that he neglected to pay taxes? What does it say to ordinary Americans that Geithner was in effect a tax cheat right up to the point he was appointed to one of the highest offices in the land? Will he ever be trusted? It is doubtful.
For all of Mr. Geithner's apparent skills and knowledge and other professional qualifications, he still has a tremendous ethical problem. Pres. Obama has made much of the need for a new era of responsibility and ethics. Obama is right. But Mr. Geithner is wrong. He should follow Daschle and Killefer by submitting his resignation.
This is a matter of personal character and accountability. It is a matter of honesty. Too many of our leaders suffer big deficits in these areas.
Since when do liberals concern themselves with character, accountability, or honesty??
Still, the American people do, and this points to a developing trend: that's three straight nominations, two of whom got thrown under the bus (it should have been three, but the GOP in the Senate inexplicably bent over for Geithner). Combine all the tax cheats with the lobbyists, and Obama isn't having an exactly stellar track record with his appointments. You know, if this keeps up, even Obots are going to figure out that their Obamessiah has a problem associating with people who have character and integrity. People understand things like paying taxes, and they resent things like paying higher taxes. They really resent paying higher taxes while elected leaders skip out on those same taxes.
This reminds me of the old House banking scandal where Democrat members of the House would write checks against the House bank, even when there was no money there. The average American may not be able to negotiate a treaty with foreign dictators or speak the legalese necessary to write law, but we sure as heck understand that you don't write checks when there is no money in the bank! This is the same kind of simple thing...people aren't going to like this trend of top Democrats skipping out on their taxes. If this idea becomes entrenched firmly enough in the public consciousness, it could come back to bite him, and the party in general. The GOP would do well to beat it into place. Watch the late night shows - if Leno and Letterman start hitting tax evasion jokes hard, you know it's stuck.
Keep 'em coming, Obama!
There's my two cents.
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