I was somewhat relieved to see this:
“I screwed up,” President Barack Obama told NBC’s Brian Williams Tuesday in the wake of his nominee to be secretary of health and human services, Tom Daschle, withdrawing his name from consideration.
Daschle dropped out after acknowledging that he had belatedly paid more than $128,000 in taxes owed to the federal government.
“Today was an embarrassment for us,” Obama said. He said he was “angry,” “disappointed” and “frustrated with myself” over the Daschle episode.
And somewhat not.
Can't say I was surprised to see Tom Daschle's name show up for a Cabinet nomination,
as he and Obama have been courting each other for some time, no doubt favors were attempted to be repaid. And, to Daschle's credit, he does know a lot about the Hill and would have been a good one to get things done. He would have been a strong asset for the Administration, especially with the health care reform mountain they will have to climb.
It's disappointing to have lost him, but not as disappointing as to see
how frequently his Cabinet appointees are turning up with unfinished tax business.
...didn't we just send this packing, all but throwing it out?
It's also nauseating to see how short and convenient some memories are:
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said Obama was "losing credibility" with his statements in support of Daschle. "Part of leadership is recognizing when there has been a mistake made and responding quickly," the Republican said.
No doubt the Right will have a lot more to say about all this in the future, but I'm not as concerned about that, since they really have no room to talk, given the last eight year debacle they enjoyed and the aftermath of which we're still enduring, barely.
What concerns me more is the future.
You have to give Obama kudos at least for owning up to his part (or lack of) in the choices and publicly wiping egg off his face. He took responsibility, as a leader should, albeit after the fact.
However, we're very early in the game for this kind of self-correction. If this is any indication of what we get to look forward to for the remaining Cabinet seats, let alone policy debates, reforms and
critical evaluation and prosecution of previous positions and crimes, we have a real problem brewing.
Let's not forget why we voted these guys in, and kicked the other ones out.
