Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger.

I’m so using that; it’s so entertainingly disgusting a way to describe the corruption. I love it.

Ugh, what a tool. Like you, I hadn’t followed Daschle’s career all that closely. I thought his appointment was maybe a sign that Obama was serious about health care legislation making it through congress since Daschle knows the ins and outs of the Hill.

Regarding the lawyer’s lame-ass excuse: I don’t know shit about the tax code, but even I know if you receive a valuable service from an employer, there are probably tax implications.

Before people get all excited by Taibbi’s predictably “All Things in DC are Evil” schtick, bear in mind that Alston and Bird is just another law firm, not the House of Mammon.  I have friends who work there, nice liberal lobbyists who vote Dem, work for progressive causes and volunteered for the Obama team.  No big deal.

Frankly, I find the whole Taibbi/Sirota game of getting ticked and screaming bloody murder about every Obama appointee who has actually held a job in DC to be tiresome, dishonest and more about continuing their own careers as gadflies in the face of a progressive administration than any actual concern for the progressive movement.

Intentional slap in the face to Hillary in 3, 2, ...

I think Matt Taibbi can be entertaining but as a “trusted source” I think he can mostly be trusted to rant and rave for good effect.

By the way, what I particularly liked in the article that I linked to is how he analyzed what the Clintons did wrong in their attempt to reform the health care system.  Stuff I’ve been thinking all along.  And he has thought out strategies for avoiding the same failure.  It also appears he leans towards an eventual single payer plan which I also support.

marindenver,

Exactly.  I keep seeing “worked previously in DC” being used as evidence that Obama isn’t really on the up and up with some campaign promise or another. For instance, HRC’s SD appointment was used that way, but she seems fully on to the Obama International Agenda now.

As far as DC goes, these people’s relationships and experiences are a feature, not a flaw.

I understand that people are feeling twice shy after years of Bush (and dare I say Clinton) campaign promises being turned to lies, but Obama hasn’t shown any sign of backing out of his committments.  In fact, I find that he’s tackling them with all haste.

Media Browski—Taibbi may hyperbolic, but at least he has a way with words; better still, he has a way of using them to take down Thomas Friedman.  Sirota is probably closer to the truth, but his dynamic range consists entirely of tiresome, relentless shrillness.

Sirota is probably closer to the truth, but his dynamic range consists entirely of tiresome, relentless shrillness.

Agreed!

For me the most enduring image of Daschle was from his 2004 campaign ad that featured him hugging George W. Bush, a failed attempt to tap into “Dubya fever.”

Can you say “opportunistic douchebag”?

Taibbi may be over the top but lets face it: Daschle and his second wife are a piece of work. And they were long before Taibbi was writing about them. As Majority leader Daschle gave new meaning to the words ineffective and quisling. He was absolutely cravenly incompetent and I think if I’d grasped how his performance in the Senate affected my digestion I would have gone on prilosec years ago, dosing myself after every one of Daschle’s public capitulations. 

I know politics is ugly and all that but why, oh why, do we have to see obama squander political capital to get Daschle a new top job in order for Daschle to publicly screw over the actual public. The cemeteries are full of “indispensible men” and I see no evidence that, from a progressive point of view, Daschle is indispensible for the task that he has supposedly been allotted: getting us good universal coverage. In fact, aside from working as a shill in the health care industry for huge bucks he has shown no signs of any interest in the actual product of the industry—health care. I want the real deal. As NYCeve posted in her diary today about the bipolar man who killed himself for lack of health care coverage “we want what congress has: health care coverage.” That’s it. That’s the slogan. We want what you have. And since I’m sure daschle owes his first loyalty to his pocketbook I’m really, really, really sure that Daschle isn’t going to singlehandedly destroy the very people who have been paying his out of government salary.

aimai

As a former citizen of South Dakota who actually, you know, got to vote for they guy on more than on occasion, I think the portrait of him as some sort of super-whore is just a wee bit over the top.  Daschle managed to keep getting re-elected in a state that is really, really conservative for the most part, so he was never going to be the darling of the left.  I’ll admit I was pretty disappointed in him rolling over as Majority Leader, but my sheer home-state loyalty leaves me a little pissed off about this portrait of him.

but a board member of the Mayo Clinic (a major recipient of NIH grants) and the husband of one of America’s biggest defense lobbyists — wife Linda Hall lobbies for Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.

Whatever strikes there are against Daschle, these seem rather weak points. Actually, somebody will have to explain to me why being on the board of the Mayo, receiver of NIH grants, is anything but commendable.

I love reading Taibbi, and when I hear he’s going to be opening fire on somebody, I like to bring my picnic basket and gingham tablecloth and observe the carnage from a shady overlook, but a removed one, because he frankly hasn’t the best aim. I remember when he was writing for the New York Press. He was part of their rotation of snotty-nosed bomb throwers and got that publication noticed. The otherwise unbearable trust-funded windbag who owned the Press was extremely smart about publishing diverse foully amusing young writers (along with his own neo-con fumbling analysis, combined with complaints and gotchas about service in restaurants none of his readers could hope to afford). Then the letters section would fill out the rest of the editorial for free with readers’ reactions.

Taibbi was the least disciplined but funniest(except for Jim Knipfel, whom I would have followed home except that it would have scared him) of the NY Press writers. Here, he has done the equivalent of a list song, which is great fun, but does not encourage the reader to think about the individual items in the list. “Burning up the sheets with fat cats” is a great turn of phrase—ok, a middling funny turn—-but it’s just part of a general impression: Taibbi is Monet painting with goat droppings.

His accountants would have grilled him extensively to find out what other goodies he’d been getting from that outfit, 1099 or not. Very lame of Daschle and his attorney. Methinks.

Well, I would have questioned him more thoroughly but there are a lot of accountants out there that are pretty lax about that stuff.  I know since I frequently have to amend prior year returns for new clients.  He did say the issue bothered him and he asked the accountant to look into it last summer.  There’s a lot worse tax cheats out there, trust me.

And I disagree with Aimee’s contention further back that he has shown no interest in the subject of health care.  The link I posted up above indicates he’s not only interested but has studied it.

I’m not particularly advocating for the guy but I don’t see that he’s “tar and feathering” material on the basis of what’s been presented here.

I don’t see that he’s “tar and feathering” material on the basis of what’s been presented here.

aimai, if you’re so inclined please email me at poputonian[at]gmail[dot]com; no biggie, just wanted to ask you something. Even if you don’t email, please do keep visiting here and expressing your thoughts. I’ve missed reading your posts over at the zoo and would love to hear your insights more often.

I agree the Greenwald post has a lot more troubling information.  And had a couple of other good links.  If he does get confirmed (which I’m thinking he will be) I hope he’s serious about doing the job he apparently wants.  I do still think his analysis of the Clintons’ failure to reform the health care system was pretty insightful and did present a good blueprint of what not to do.

I’m supporting Daschle because the pumas are prowling against him, and I want the fail streak unbroken.

I think it was a good post, Pop—I just wouldn’t count on Taibbi as the main course. He’s more of a condiment.

Prior to what may very well be a somewhat less than above-board career as a lobbyist, he did represent my home state very well.  He always made an effort to travel to all corners of a sparsely populated state and talk to his constituents.  Being a nice guy certainly doesn’t qualify someone to be HHS secretary, I understand.  And frankly, I can’t read Greenwald.  I used to be able to, but after a while 300 pages of humorless prose interrupted by interminable block quotes just gets old.  I even agree with him half the time, but I just find him completely unreadable.

The bigger problem is, what politician with a pulse is not somewhat tainted? Seriously, do you really think there is a politician out there who hasn’t done drugs or cheated on his spouse or lied or taken a “gift” or cheated on his taxes or done something else really stupid that will one day come back to haunt him or her?

turtle-

my sheer home-state loyalty leaves me a little pissed off about this portrait of him.

Good thing you’re not from TX

or alaska

also

Good thing you’re not from TX

or alaska

also

I only got pissed off about Daschle because I liked him as a Senator.  It isn’t just the home state thing.  I can assure you if it was John Thune getting taken down, I’d laugh and laugh and laugh.  And just because I thought he was a good Senator for SoDak doesn’t mean I don’t think he’s been a bit of an influence peddler since.