A third Obama appointee is in trouble for tax issues. This is troublesome. President Obama is fighting hard and a good fight on what he believes is right and necessary regarding the stimulus package. I do not believe anything sinister is going on. However, there is the issue of perception. President Obama campaigned hard on a doing things a new way.
This damage is not permanent. It will go away. It was not necessary. That being said there are people that will play up the sexist angle on this. President Obama was able to get Geithner and Daschle through for a couple of very important reason. Senators on both sides of the aisle were afraid that if Geithner didn't get to Treasury our steep decline would dramatically worsen. Daschle is simply too important for the Obama's administration's plans regarding health care. I have mentioned previously that the reason Daschle was chosen was ability to work the Senate. He will rely upon his experience as Majority Leader of the Senate.
Deputy Director of Office of Manage and Budget is expendable. There are a number of competent people that will perform this job admirably. President Obama has to spend any political capitol on 1) Geithner 2) Daschle 3) stimulus package. Plus he will need to save some capital for future battles.
I will be glad once we get past the confirmation stage of this administration. So far, it appears that most of these problems have been fairly honest mistakes. The important issue is how the administration handles these issues and communicates with the people.
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2 comments:
It seems odd to me that the "vetting" process wouldn't have come up with any of these issues.
My uninformed guess. Is that they were aware of the issues with Daschle. But a decision was made that he was too important to lose over it. This is the Screw up which President Obama is referring too. The issue with the Chief Performance officer was probably missed and would not have been a big deal had the ground already been laid with Geithner and Daschle.
In an odd way if it had not been for Daschle the CPO would have been ok. And if it wasn't for the CPO Daschle would have made it.
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