Opposing Daschle Should be No-Brainer for GOP
UPDATE:Â Daschle withdraws as nominee for HHS secretary
Now that even the New York Times has called for Tom Daschle “to step aside” (via the Corner), it should be a no-brainer for Senate Republicans to oppose the former Senator’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
It’s not just his tax problems, it’s that he embodies everything Republicans are supposed to oppose. He is, as John Hinderaker puts it, a symbol of all that’s wrong in D.C. After John Thune ousted Daschle from the Senate in 2004, the Democrat didn’t return to his home state, but stayed in the nation’s capital where he made a mint “consulting” for a lobbying firm.
We’re supposed to be the party opposing the accretion of power in our nation’s capital.
Daschle is, in Jennifer Rubin’s words, “the consummate Washington insider who used his position to fatten his wife’s lobbyist portfolio.” And by tapping him for such an important post, Rubin believes, the president and his team have shown.
a tin-ear for corruption and venality. They, who marinated in the juices of Chicago, seem dense when it comes to this sort of thing. They didn’t know enough to stay away from Blago, nix Bill Richardson, stick to their own lobbyist rules, dump Geithner and now lose Daschle. And this comes from the campaign that ran against the Clintons and the Washington tradition of sleazy dealing.
The White House may assume its own lofty poll numbers and the President’s personal appeal have rendered it impervious to examination or criticism. But that, I think, is a mistake. The public’s disgust is not easily extinguished. They will be saddened and more than a bit angry that the President, who promised an end to all this, thinks there’s nothing wrong with business as usual.
It should be the policy of the GOP to run against business as usual in our nation’s capitol. Ronald Reagan dedicated our party to reducing the power of the nation’s capital. If we don’t stand against a Democrat who embodies its excesses, against what will we stand? Not just that, shouldn’t we hold him to the same standards he held Republicans when he was in the Senate?
Silence now further distances the GOP from the American people long disgusted by business as usual in Washington, D.C.
So, the GOP would do well to heed Rubin’s advice:Â “For those Republicans who are remaining mute, they may want to reconsider. Silence is a dangerous game, giving the appearance that Republicans are behind the curve and out to lunch.”
UPDATE: Good news. New RNC Chair Michael Steele thinks Republicans should oppose Daschle’s nomination.
UP-UPDATE: More good news. Guess Republicans won’t need to oppose the South Dakota Democrat: Daschle withdraws.
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So why didn’t they oppose Geithner? While we’re at it, why did they let Hilldog skate?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — February 3, 2009 @ 4:50 am - February 3, 2009
Senators have little backbone. Rather, they go along to get along. The GOP Senators have teeny little spines. Good for Michael Steele for setting the tone for the party. McConnell is a terrible Minority Leader and should be replaced soon, but it won’t happen. I live in Florida and our Republican Senator (who mercifully won’t be running for reelection) is a virtual no show and an embarrassment to the party. The Senators will make speeches about how it’s important to pay taxes, blah blah blah,and then role over and let Obama rub their bellies. A pox on all their houses.
Comment by Mokey — February 3, 2009 @ 9:07 am - February 3, 2009
Hope… Change… Hope… Change…
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — February 3, 2009 @ 10:05 am - February 3, 2009
Great post Dan!
Comment by Bruce (GayPatriot) — February 3, 2009 @ 10:07 am - February 3, 2009
Yet *Another* Obama appointee with a tax problem SRSLY, do any of you Democrats actually pay taxes?
Comment by V the K — February 3, 2009 @ 10:34 am - February 3, 2009
Another!!!!!!!!!!! Could the media please ask the Democrat appointees and nominees which ones actually have PAID their taxes. It willsave us a lot of time here. And can we have another love fest about how flawless the Obama transition and vetting process went. What a fricking joke. The gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Boobs bunglers and thieves. And they haven’t gotten around to calling Mr Chairman Rangle on his tax “mistakes”. Or is it only the white females and males that have to come clean? hehehhe (man am I lovin this hehe)
I was prepared to come together and give this President a chance. We all agreed the country needed a honeymoon of sorts. I was looking forward to his bi partisian promises. Then he stuck the Republicans in the eye in the House. Guess the change montra was a lie.
Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — February 3, 2009 @ 10:43 am - February 3, 2009
#5 – V, just remember what uber-liberal Leona Helmsley infamously said in 1986:
“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”
PS – Other blogs have picked up on the “Leona Helmsley Democrats” meme (i.e. Malkin, TownHall et al). I think we’ve started a trend.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — February 3, 2009 @ 10:43 am - February 3, 2009
Dear Boys and Girls of the Republican Party,
We lost the House, we lost the Senate, we lost the White House, we lost a bunch of governorships. So, if we do NOT play nice with the Democrats, what DO WE HAVE TO LOSE?
Also, boys and girls, why are the Democrats so interested in giving us advice? They keep telling us that unless we “go along to get along” that we will be wiped from the face of the planet. So, does that mean that they will not run candidates against us if we play nice with them?
Boys and girls, the Democrats play jackal and hyena better than we do. But we have done pretty well in the past by standing on principle. We just got our clocks cleaned by trying the McCainsian application of cooperative principle.
Boys and girls, yes we can stand up to Daschle. Not only can we, but we MUST. Tom Daschle is turd in the punchbowl of principle. Worse than that, he is launching fireworks and flying a banner which proclaims himself as the biggest punchbowl of principle turd in human memory.
When Daschle led his party, do we believe that he wasn’t fully up to speed on ethics and how to keep his people out of trouble? Do we believe that he was unaware of basic no no’s in the tax code? De we believe that if he were so naive as a major government player that such naivety will serve him well running a huge government department?
Boys and girls, sometimes you have to take the bull by the tail and face the situation. (You may thank W.C. Fields for that one.)
Comment by heliotrope — February 3, 2009 @ 10:52 am - February 3, 2009
It took ScreaminHowieDean about 18 months to get up to speed in calling his own Party’s socks smelly or dirty. He got a way with it for a while until BoToxPelosi and gReid took him to the outhouse for a little private flogging with the Sears catalog.
Daschle will get approved unless more Democrat Senators take exception and that’s what Steele should be harping on… the Culture of Corruption is a label to be affixed to the Democrats/Obama and if the GOP were in control of the Senate, this nomination would be D.O.A
End of message.
Comment by Michigan-Matt — February 3, 2009 @ 11:00 am - February 3, 2009
[...] Opposing Daschle Should be No-Brainer for GOP [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Another Obama Appointee Fails to Pay Taxes — February 3, 2009 @ 12:06 pm - February 3, 2009
SRSLY, do any of you Democrats actually pay taxes?
I do. And way too much of them.
Comment by Neptune — February 3, 2009 @ 12:09 pm - February 3, 2009
#10 – You can thank your party for that.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — February 3, 2009 @ 12:44 pm - February 3, 2009
Yes, that’s very true – I do have my party to thank for that. No debate there.
Comment by Neptune — February 3, 2009 @ 1:48 pm - February 3, 2009
So Neptune, why are you staying with the DNC when it treats you so horribly? Sounds like a battered-wife syndrome to me.
Just wondering.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — February 3, 2009 @ 3:43 pm - February 3, 2009
How many times will Dem defenders use the “but he’s an honorable man” line???? The scumbag is a tax cheat and he wouldn’t have paid unless he was being considered for the HHS job.
There was TimmieTheTaxCheat… then Rangle… then Daschle… gosh, it’s getting old. And let’s not forget all the Dems who took sweetheart mortgage deals while writing regulation of the housing broker industry.
But is it getting to be a theme? Could the Culture of Corruption be back in Washington?
Comment by Michigan-Matt — February 3, 2009 @ 3:59 pm - February 3, 2009
M-Matt: it never left. It merely was usurped by another party with the aid of their willing accomplices in the MSM.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — February 3, 2009 @ 4:17 pm - February 3, 2009
You know, Peter, I ask myself that question frequently enough. Guess it’s probably a mix of a few things. Familial tradition, my own discomfort with the influence of the “religious right” on the current incarnation of the Republican party, and what I feel the role of government should be. I rarely if ever vote the party line though. I try to keep an open mind while still identifying myself as a Dem.
Comment by Neptune — February 3, 2009 @ 4:19 pm - February 3, 2009
Oh, p.s. – hence why I also started reading this blog. I like how many of you attempt to have some honest discourse.
Comment by Neptune — February 3, 2009 @ 4:20 pm - February 3, 2009
#17 – Thanks, Nep. I enjoy your observations too.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — February 3, 2009 @ 4:55 pm - February 3, 2009
So how comforting are the KOSholes and the DUmbasses?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — February 4, 2009 @ 6:09 am - February 4, 2009