Can Daschle Be Confirmed?

No matter what, this can’t be good.

Tom Daschle, who had impressed everyone at his Senate confirmation hearings just a few short weeks ago, might have been expected to sail through the process out of deference for a former Senator if nothing else.  Instead, his nomination is strongly in doubt due to the revelations that he mistakenly owed $146,000 worth of back taxes for use of a car and a driver.  Already, we’re getting calls for Daschle to step aside – from the left!  Katrina Vanden Heuvel of The Nation is out with an editorial entitled “Let Daschle Go!” Clearly every day we talk about Daschle’s taxes and who he gave a speech to when, it’s a setback for the momentum of health care reform.

Daschle originally seemed like a dream choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services.  As a decades-long leader in the Senate, he had a strong working knowledge of not just the policies but the politics of health care, particularly on Medicare and Medicaid funding and reform.  From the get-go, his pick was viewed entirely through the lens of an Obama Administration push for comprehensive health care reform – and, as such, it was very encouraging.  After all, he clearly had absorbed the lessons of the past.  His deconstruction of the Bill Clinton health care reform efforts in his book, Critical:  What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, shows he clearly spent time reflecting on what went wrong, and what could have saved the process.  His central policy thesis in the book – that we need a Federal Health Board which would be free of the political process and empowered to make the tough calls about what should be considered a “comprehensive” benefit and how much should care cost – is both good policy and good politics, recognizing an inherent weakness in how we currently approach funding for public programs.  And, of course, as a former minority leader in the Senate, he would have invaluable relationships in the Senate – notoriously the worst “choke point” for reform legislation because of the need for 60 votes to forestall a filibuster.  It was no surprise, then, when President Obama formally announced Daschle not just as his HHS pick, but also as head of the new White House Office of Health Care Reform.

Now, in all honesty, I don’t know that $146,000 in back taxes means he’s any less qualified than he was before when it comes to understanding health care (even if some of the back taxes were Medicare taxes for his driver).  But certainly there’s an appearance of either boneheadedness or impropriety, neither of which will make the daunting political task of being the “go to” person on health care reform any easier.  The president and the Democrats have hitherto been unanimous in their continued support.  Daschle has released a “mea culpa” letter publicly and, following the Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner script, will look to have personal interviews with Senators to answer all questions.  What’s unknown is the appetite for drama and obstruction.  Will we hear more people joining Katrina Vanden Heuvel’s call to abandon Daschle, on the left and on the right?  If conservatives decide to make an example of him and fight against his confirmation as HHS Secretary, could he still effectively function as Executive Director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform – an office that does not require Senate confirmation?  Or is this all the usual sturm and drang from Washington, where Daschle will be roughed up before being eventually confirmed as planned, again following the Geithner script?

I tend to think it will ultimately be the last of these.  But there is no question this is a stumble in the health care reform momentum.  After all, it’s not helping the cause to use up your political capital to get confirmed in the first place, before any of the big reforms have even been proposed.