As much as rendition, the Iraq scam and the looting of the Treasury for bank bonuses, Tom Daschle makes me wonder if the coup has already happened and America is under the control of a shadow government, whatever the outcome of elections. As you know, President Obama's choice to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services — and point man on health care reform — has a tax problem. He failed to pay $140,000 in taxes, as the New York Times genteelly puts it, "related to income for consulting work and the use of a car made
available to him by a close friend who is also a generous donor to
Democratic causes."
We have a task of civic rebuilding after 25 years of more-or-less "conservative" misgovernance — chief on the list restoration of a fair and adequate revenue base for government, and teaching people there's no free lunch. Tax cuts are not a magic elixir. Taxes are the cost of a modern society. Daschle, like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner before him, is no better than a fat Republican tax cheat — with the added hypocrisy of wanting (rightly) to raise taxes. These are the Ted Haggards of tax policy.
Yet more troubling is the window Daschle's "embarrassing" slip gives us into the permanent power elite.
Daschle served as a senator from South Dakota from 1986 to 2004, rising to become majority leader. When he was narrowly defeated, he didn't return to little Aberdeen, S.D. Like the elite of both parties, he stayed in D.C., earning more than $200,000 in speaking fees alone…before members of the health care industry. He took a job as an adviser at a prominent K Street lobbying firm that has made millions representing health care businesses. In four years, Daschle was able to make $5 million and live a lifestyle so carelessly lavish that he forgot all about where that nice damned car came from.
Then there is Daschle's wife, Linda, one of the most prominent and powerful lobbyists for the airline and aviation industries — when she wasn't running the Federal Aviation Administration in the Clinton administration. Linda Daschle is, as we used to say when newspapers had balls, a target-rich environment of conflicts of interest and questionable dealings. And I'm sure none of this will come out in the Senate confirmation hearings, as the distinguished members look out for one of their own.
Sure, Nixon went to China. FDR picked Joe Kennedy to clean up Wall Street — asked why he would pick a financial crook for the job, FDR quipped, "takes one to catch one." Sure, sure. But what we seem to be talking about is a permanent shadow government whose members, whatever their ideological disagreements, profit as the nation falls apart. Things got out of hand with Bush II — but the shadow government made even more money. The Daschles and Rubins claim better motives than those on the right, yet they seem to only temporarily slow the decline, all the while undermining and apologizing for liberalism — and awaiting the next looting to follow the next conservative election. They'll still be around.
I find Daschle more troubling than Geithner, whose tax issues at least weren’t aggravated by somethings we once quaintly called “political ideals”. Just how does Daschle, who lobbies on behalf of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, represent the change Obama promised? Even if he bites the hand that feeds him, the public will rightly suspect him using his gums.
What made Obama such a compelling figure was his apparent distance from the decadent insider-culture of Washington. Now, he’s tainting himself by appointing mostly insiders to high office. Obama’s political capital is being compromised before it can even be effectively used.
At some point, we may need to exacerbate the divisions in order to highlight the issues. If we blur them instead, we cede the drama to the screamers on the right. Liberalism further loses when it decides to co-opt its own political claims on behalf of some abstract comity. Worse, liberalism’s failure of nerve also undermines its core moral arguments.
If we don’t really believe anything because it’s upsetting to Conventional Wisdom along with vested interests, then we should simply step aside. At some point, Obama may want to galvanize himself before he tries to galvanize this nation.
Hypocrisy is a better motive than Ayn Rand dogma? Anyway, I’m not surprised — William Greider saw this coming in his book “Who Will Tell the People”. We’ve just elected the Crips after partially ousting the Bloods.
Good post. The sleaze deepens and curdles. Salon’s vigilant and excellent blogger Glenn Greenwald took up this topic a couple of days ago and thoroughly whacked Daschle and his trophy wife. It’s worth further reading. Scroll down a bit after you open the link. https://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
“…Tom Daschle makes me wonder if the coup has already happened and America is under the control of a shadow government, whatever the outcome of elections.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
what scum!
ERMAGERD I CANNOT BELERVE THERS!!!
I just wish the world could be happy. is that 2 much 2 ask?!?!?!
yes, sadness is my happiness, it is too much to ask. I love being depressed, I can’t believe you want to take that away from me
I would have to agree with Depression Obsession. The wurld needs unhappy peeple otterwise no1 could bez h4ppy 4t 4ll. So i think we shuld just 4ll be h4ppy togetter.
Go back to school redneck
ya’ll need to stahp, lyke 4 realz now
But sometimes cutting provides an escape… TO NARNIA!!!