Greenwald: The Daschles: Feeding at the Beltway Trough WHY IS OBAMA BACKING THIS GUY?

[mod mom]

SUNDAY FEB. 1, 2009 08:23 EST
The Daschles: feeding at the Beltway trough
(updated below - Update II - Update III)

When Barack Obama announced in early December that he had selected Tom Daschle to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services as well as his "health care policy czar," Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi -- who had spent several months studying the inner workings of the 2006 Congress in order to profile its limitless corruption -- wrote the following reaction on his blog:

I know several reporters who are either officially or unofficially on "Whore Factor" duty, watching the rapidly kaleidoscoping transition picture and keeping track of the number of known whores and ghouls who for some reason have been invited to befoul the atmosphere of the next administration.

Obviously there has been some dire news on that front already. When Obama picked Tom Daschle to be the HHS Secretary, I nearly shit my pants. In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger. True, he is probably only the second-biggest whore for the health care industry in American politics — the biggest being doctor/cat-torturer Bill Frist, whose visit to South Dakota on behalf of John Thune in 2004 was one of the factors in ending Daschle's tenure in the Senate.

But in picking Daschle — who as an adviser to the K Street law firm Alston and Bird has spent the last four years burning up the sheets with the nation's fattest insurance and pharmaceutical interests — Obama is essentially announcing that he has no intention of seriously reforming the health care industry. .

-snip

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/01/daschle/index.html


I read this article and can't help to think w t heck does Obama need someone like this on his team. Glen Greenwald exposes Daschle as the corporate special interest guy he is, complete with this tidbit at the end;

UPDATE: I also can't help but contrasting this passage detailing how Tom and Linda ended up married, from The Washington Monthly article . . . :
Yes, it's true: Before Mrs. Daschle was Mrs. Daschle, she was Miss Kansas, 1976.

Petite and blond, with perfect, straight white teeth, Daschle is still strikingly beautiful at 46. But she has a vise-like handshake you wouldn't expect from a beauty queen that suggests the steely interior necessary to survive in Washington power circles. . . .
She met Tom Daschle on a work trip to South Dakota. At the time, Tom Daschle was a freshman congressman, married to the woman who in 1978 had helped him ring 40,000 doorbells and go on to unseat an incumbent by 14 votes. By 1984, Tom had divorced his first wife, with whom he had three children, and married Linda . . .
. . . . with this 2003 clip of Tom Daschle, explaining to Jon Stewart that gay marriage must not be allowed because "a man and a woman have a sacred and a traditional cultural bond within this country. . . it's a statement of fact: society is embracing the marriage of a man and a woman, and by and large, that's the way it should be . . . DOMA is the statute and I don't think it's unconstitutional":

NICE GUY-HEY?
. .

[LisaM]

1. Tom Daschle has been a de facto lobbyist for the past few years

And his wife has been a real one. I felt that Obama was straddling the issue (of not picking allowing lobbyists in his campaign) to use Daschle as he did - and then to put him into his administration.

[madfloridian]

2. Not only is Daschle anti-gay marriage, he was/is anti-choice for women.

In 1997 Daschle introduced an anti-choice bill

It was more rigid and absolute in its contempt for women than the bill put forth by the GOP.

"Daschle's so-called compromise bill, as quoted in the New York Times, permits an exception to the ban for `a severely debilitating disease or impairment specifically caused by the pregnancy (emphasis added),' but makes no provision for a pre-existing, life- and health-threatening `debilitating disease or impairment' that is being exacerbated by the pregnancy. This could include kidney disease, severe hypertension and some cancers. Nor does the Daschle bill allow for an abortion in cases of severe fetal abnormality where it is unlikely the fetus would live long outside the womb, even with technological support.

"The physician certification requirement and the potential loss of a medical license in the Daschle language invites government scrutiny of private medical matters and threatens doctor-patient confidentiality. The intent of this and other abortion ban bills is to control women and to limit their ability to make critical reproductive decisions that affect their families, their health and their lives. These bills represent the ultimate in Congressional arrogance," Gandy charged.

Not only that we now have a DNC chairman who is anti-choice, anti civil unions, and anti labor.

And we are supposed to suck it up and be bipartisan.

The state also saw the swearing-in today in of a new governor, Democrat Tim Kaine, who opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions. He has promised to sign the measure that places the amendment on the ballot after the Senate passes the proposal once more. Even more depressing is that measures that would have limited the scope of the amendment's discrimination were deep-sixed.

..."WASHINGTON - While Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said he supports the $500,000 allocation in the budget bill lawmakers approved last month to fund adult stem cell research in Virginia, he does not want to see taxpayer money used for embryonic stem cell research.

“I don’t think we should be publicly funding it in Virginia,” Kaine, who is Catholic, said Tuesday during his monthly appearance on WTOP radio. “You will not see me proposing that. I think there are huge advances that can be made in adult stem cell research. I think that’s the way to go.”

..""Promote abstinence; ban partial-birth abortion
I will reduce abortion in Virginia by enforcing current Virginia restrictions, passing an enforceable ban on partial-birth abortion, ensuring women’s access to health care (including legal contraception), and promoting abstinence-focused education and adoption. We should reduce abortion in this manner, rather than by criminalizing women and doctors.
Source: Campaign website www.kaine2005.org, “Issues” Nov 8, 2005

This is really upsetting me....all this unity stuff.

[RollWithIt]

3. You clearly don't know that Daschles former staffers almost all worked for Obama from the very start

So not sure why anyone would be surprised by his selection for HHS.

[laugle]

9. CRONYISM IS NOT CHANGE! n/t

[mod mom]

11. So loyalty over integrity-hmmh sounds familiar. I would love to hear from his 1st wife.

Daschle sounds like a Gingrich, McCain type of asshole!

[1776Forever]

4. As RollWithIt states above - Daschle had some very influential staffers - Read on.........

This was written way back in 2006:

The Obama-Daschle Connection
by Chris Cillizza

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2006/12/the_obamadaschle_connection.html

When former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) announced last week that he would not run for president, he was largely ignored by the national news media.

But, Daschle's decision actually has major repercussions when it comes to the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- currently THE hot candidate of Democratic presidential politics. (Witness the rock star treatment that Obama received during a book signing and campaign stop in New Hampshire yesterday.)

Why? Because many people in Obama's inner circle have close ties to Daschle and would have been put in an extremely tough situation if both men had decided to run. With Daschle out, the way is clear for these experienced campaign hands to focus full-time on Obama -- a boon for the relatively inexperienced Senator as he navigates the tricky waters of a national bid in the coming months. If Obama does decide to run, you can expect a number of other top-level staffers with ties to Daschle to jump on-board the nascent presidential campaign.

Daschle has yet to endorse any candidate for president although he did have kind words for Obama recently, saying: "I think because of the tremendous amount of enthusiasm and support that Sen. Obama has around the country, you'd be foolish not to give it some very careful thought."

Here's a look at the major former Daschle staffers now in Obama's orbit:

*Pete Rouse: Rouse served as Daschle's chief of staff for 20 years before the South Dakota Senator's defeat in 2004. Shortly afterward, he was selected to serve in that same post for Obama.

*Robert Gibbs: Obama's communications director, Gibbs served in that same role at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the 2002 cycle. He was handpicked by the Daschle operation for that job.

*Steve Hildebrand: Daschle's campaign manager in 2004 (and South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson's in 2002), Hildebrand accompanied Obama on a recent trip to Iowa and has been reaching out to potential staff behind the scenes. Hildebrand also ran the Iowa caucuses for then Vice President Al Gore in 2000.

*Anita Dunn: Dunn, a longtime Daschle aide, has been tasked with straightening out Obama's Hopefund PAC through the end of this year. She will not be a part of any Obama bid as she is committed as a senior strategist for Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh (D).

*Todd Webster: Webster is a former spokesman for Daschle and the brains behind www.runobama.com, a draft site for the Illinois Senator that has collected some 11,000 signatures urging him to run.

[Thrill]

5. First time I've been disappointed with Obama. He should get rid of this weasel

[1776Forever]

6. Dub sorry

[laugle]

7. DASCHLE NEEDS TO WITHDRAW, NOW!!! We don't need this

stink right at the beginning of our new administration!!

[uponit7771]

8. If DassHoles past actions are a tell tale to what he'll do I don't expect him to be in the position

...long

[democracy1st]

10. thanks for posting this article

[Greyskye]

12. Daschle out per breaking news

Good. You can't win a race with an anchor (or baggage) tied around your neck.