America's Native Criminal Class

Glenn Greenwald explains why he wrote his article on Daschle.

I didn't write about Tom Daschle's sleazy history in order to initiate a crusade to defeat his nomination. I wrote about Daschle because the ways in which he is sleazy are illustrative of how the Washington establishment generally works. Daschle is noteworthy only because he's marginally more tawdry and transparent than the average Beltway operative -- the same reason that Rod Blagojevich has become the target of self-righteous condemnation even though what he is alleged to have done is different only as a matter of style (and, very arguably, degree) when compared to, say, Chuck Schumer's extremely "symbiotic" relationship with his Wall Street donors or Dianne Feinstein's humiliating resignation as Chair of the Military Construction Appropriations Sub-Committee after she got caught by independent, local investigative reporter Peter Byrne abusing that position by shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to defense contractors owned by her husband:

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And that's to say nothing about the fact that the entire Republican Party was fueled in large part during the Bush years by the criminal enterprise headed by Jack Abramoff.

How are people like that going to sit in judgment of Tom Daschle and pretend to be offended by his sleazy, ethically compromised history? Obviously, they can't and won't: [...] It doesn't really matter how slimy Daschle is or what revelations emerge about what he has done. The last thing that is disqualifying in Washington is an eagerness to profit off of one's political connections. If anything, that's a prerequisite for admission into its inner circle (which is what made all of the shocked Beltway tongue-clucking over the Blagojevich "scandal" so intolerable; Blagojevich's real crime was one of style: he was a blatantly outside-the-Beltway buffoon unschooled in the ways of smooth high-level political corruption).

Daschle is going to be confirmed no matter what is discovered about him. Bob Dole (who vigorously supports Daschle's nomination) explained exactly why three years ago when he first recruited Daschle to join his firm: "He's got a lot of friends in the Senate, and I've got a lot of friends in the Senate, and, combined, who knows -- we might have 51."

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.