At the center of the issues that have complicated Tom Daschle's nomination to run the Department of Health and Human Services is his relationship with Leo Hindery, the politically connected founder of the private equity firm InterMedia.
Taxes aside, we still don't know much about what Hindery got for the $1 million-a-year consulting fee he paid Daschle. Hindery and his colleagues at InterMedia aren't speaking, and the New York Times reports only that, according to a Daschle spokeswoman, "[i]n addition to lending the prestige of his name, Mr. Daschle traveled to help raise money from investors for Mr. Hindery's new venture".
But whatever Daschle did for his very healthy pay check, his association with Hindery should raise some eyebrows.
And Obama says Daschle is the best he can find for the job. That’s a damned sad statement.
Lobbyists use their insider knowledge and connections to make money from special interests and because they do so directly (call their former colleagues, for example), they must register as lobbyists. Tom Daschle used his insider status and knowledge and connections to make money from special interests but because he did not directly lobby (rather than calling a former colleague, he would tell the special interest who to call), he did not have to register as a lobbyist. And so he can work in the Obama administration.
This isn't about Tom Daschle—he was a very good senator, and will undoubtedly be a good and conscientious secretary of Health and Human Services, if confirmed.
But it does illustrate, again, the problems with sweeping rhetoric and lobbyist ban that President Obama has employed. By painting all lobbyists as evil influence peddlers and loudly proclaiming that they would have no place in his administration, he opened himself up to ridicule whenever he did (inevitably) bring lobbyists and quasi-lobbyists into his administration.
Daschle is the ultimate Washington insider. His wife Linda, who formerly headed up the Federal Aviation Authority, was until November a big-time lobbyist for the aviation industry.[...]
Although not technically a lobbyist himself, he was at the top of the first division in the influence-pedalling business, operating, as the NYT puts it judiciously, "in the gap between the popular understanding and legal definition of a lobbyist...the rules still left plenty of room for him to advise businesses seeking to influence the government or to profit otherwise from the fame and insights he acquired in public life".
In short, even without the tax issue, Daschle is the kind of guy who epitomises the Washington way of doing things, the "broken politics" that during his campaign Obama promised to sweep away.[...]
Daschle could yet help reform a broken healthcare system and emerge as a hero to the common man.
If not, however, his very presence in the cabinet might ultimately come to be seen as a symbol of Obama's hypocrisy.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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