Entangled Alliances

Tom Daschle’s withdrawal from the nomination for Health and Human Services Secretary following revelations about his unpaid taxes has sent shockwaves throughout Washington.  No one saw it coming – and it’s not often you can say that. With regards to the logic behind his withdrawal, the always excellent Ezra Klein hits the nail on the head. The key point:

There was always something studiedly vague about Obama’s insistence that he would battle a culture in which “our leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.” Obama could not remake Washington anew. His administration would certainly face unwanted scandal and welcome proficient rogues.

But it turns out that Obama’s words, well, mattered. They made it harder to ignore scandal, as the Bush administration had done. The endlessly long vetting forms forcing deep tax and income transparency, which in turn uncovered embarrassments that would never have emerged under past regimes. This has made for a more troubled transition, but will probably also result in a cleaner administration. For all the embarrassments, this, in a concrete sense, is what change looks like. It’s not an administration that decides to be clean so much as one that has little choice in the matter.

In other words: if you raise the bar, you have to be able to jump over it.

The shock felt by those on the left is no doubt accentuated by not knowing how to react.  On the one hand, it’s a massive blow to hopes of U.S. health reform given that Daschle, as former Senate Majority Leader and much-loved Washington insider, was uniquely placed to shepherd health care reform through Congress. Undoubtedly one of the key factors in the failure of Clinton’s health reform efforts back in ‘94 was the failure of the White House and Congress to work together. In this regard, Obama choosing Daschle was a genius move.  On the other hand however, the issue of Daschle’s tax returns also brought to light his unsavoury history of taking money from lobbyists and the pharmaceutical industry; discussed in Ezra’s piece but examined in greater detail in a typically merciless  Glenn Greenwald post. Greenwald’s money quote:

He embodies everything that is sleazy, sickly, and soul-less about Washington.  It’s probably impossible for Obama to fill his cabinet with individuals entirely free of Beltway filth — it’s extremely rare to get anywhere near that system without being infected by it — but Daschle oozes Beltway slime from every pore.

Bad for health reform but good for ethics? Or just plain shocking?