The New Republic

Health Care Reform For Dummies: The Big-Picture Reasons The U.S. Needs Reform, Daschle Or No Daschle. by Jonathan Cohn READ MORE >>

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Lots and lots and lots of speculation out there about who should succeed Tom Daschle. A few things to keep in mind. READ MORE >>

The conventional wisdom on the backstory of Tom Daschle's departure has already hardened. The administration cut him loose and told him to withdraw, if not explicitly then implicitly. Washington uber-networker Steve Clemons even has an item up about hostility between Daschle supporters and Rahm Emanuel, whom--in this telling--they blame for letting Daschle go without a fight. READ MORE >>

What happened to Tom Daschle? Why did he screw up like this given his clear ambition of returning to government? My theory: His wife Linda is a  powerful lobbyist in town. And when you live among the city’s top echelon of lobbyists, you become socialized into that world.  This isn’t to smear lobbyists. There are actually many decent men and women in that profession, whose existence is in some important way vital to the functioning of our democracy. But there’s obviously a lot of excess, too. So, perhaps Daschle’s moral boundaries and sense of judgment shifted over time. READ MORE >>

Can health care reform go ahead, this year, even without Tom Daschle? Yes. Does this episode--and Daschle's absence--make the task of enacting health care reform harder? Yes, although how much harder is difficult to say right now.   Daschle had a combination of talents not easy to find in one person--poiltical savvy, connections in Washington, and a thorough knowledge of health care policy. But that doesn't mean you can't replace those skills, particularly if you're willing to find several people instead of one.  READ MORE >>

As you may have heard by now, Tom Daschle just withdrew his nomination to be Secretary of Heatlh and Human Services.  It's not clear to me yet whether that means he's also stepping down as director of health care reform at the White House--or what this means for the future of health care reform. But I'm trying to learn more and will report back when I do. READ MORE >>

Leo Hindery is becoming a bigger part of the Daschle story after this Politico report that Daschle lobbied Obama to tap Hindery for a prominent post--namely Commerce Secretary of U.S. Trade Rep--in his administration. (A side note: Has there ever been this much intrigue surrounding the Commerce job?) Why is this bad news for Daschle? READ MORE >>

Over on The Treatment, TNR senior editor Jonathan Cohn has a thoughtful post about Tom Daschle. Here's how it starts: READ MORE >>

The smart money says that Tom Daschle’s nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services will go through, partly because his tax errors seem to have been inadvertent and partly because he’s a former Senate leader still held in high esteem by his old colleagues. The Senate is like a club, in which membership crosses party lines; for transgressions like these, the thinking goes, they’ll approve him. Still, all of that assumes the rules in Washington will remain what they’ve always been. And that may not be the case. Sometimes standards shift, sometimes very quickly. READ MORE >>