Tom Daschle was a great choice for HHS Sec

I am sad. Daschle was the right choice for HHS. He knew the subject and was passionate in his fervor to protect those that I have also worked a lifetime to protect - those injured or at loss from the unpredictable casualty of accident. Now we must find another person to do this job. I would nominate Max Baucus of Montana but we need his seniority in the Senate Finance Committee. He works well with another great senator, Grassley of Iowa. These are the people who make our society work right. Taxes are an unsolveable mess. Who can navigate the thousands of pages of rules perfectly. Answer: no one! Daschle is not a criminal. He is a good and honest man. I am just sad about this. Why can't we figure out how to do this right??

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama scrambled to regain control of his political message Tuesday after a series of tax and vetting scandals forced one of his most important nominees to withdraw and raised questions about the new president's central campaign pledge to change politics as usual.

Obama sat Tuesday afternoon for interviews with the major television networks, saying that he accepts responsibility for the controversies, is committed to high ethical standards and won't accept a double standard for those in power versus average Americans. Obama also sought to steer attention back to the debate in Congress over an economic stimulus package that's approaching $900 billion.

Earlier Tuesday, former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to become secretary of health and human services, saying that his failure to pay what eventually became $146,000 in back taxes would prevent him from operating "with the full faith of Congress and the American people."

Daschle told Obama of his decision in a telephone call. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the decision was Daschle's alone.

The White House announced the news hours after Nancy Killefer, Obama's nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the new post of federal chief performance officer, also dropped out because of unpaid taxes.

Those departures followed the confirmation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner despite his own controversy over unpaid taxes, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's earlier dropping of his bid to become commerce secretary because of a federal probe into a pay-to-play scandal that's reached into his office.

Obama on Tuesday nominated Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, a Republican, to the commerce post.

The loss of Daschle could imperil Obama's ability to achieve comprehensive health-care restructuring, one of his paramount policy goals. Daschle is a former Senate majority leader with wide connections throughout the nation's capital and expertise in health policy. He was to have led Obama's efforts to make affordable health-care coverage available to all Americans.

"I will not be the architect of America's health system reform, but I remain one of its most fervent supporters," Daschle said in a statement.

Obama had said Monday that he "absolutely" stood by Daschle. On Tuesday, however, he issued a statement saying that he accepted Daschle's decision with "sadness and regret.

"Tom made a mistake, which he has openly acknowledged. He has not excused it, nor do I. But that mistake, and this decision, cannot diminish the many contributions Tom has made to this country. . . . Now we must move forward."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who's long worked with Democrats on health legislation, said the loss of Daschle, combined with health-policy veteran Sen. Edward Kennedy's diminished energies from his fight against a brain tumor, would make health-care revisions harder to achieve.

White House spokesman Gibbs declined to discuss apparent shortcomings in Obama's vetting process for nominees. He said that Obama had confidence in the process.

"I'm not going to spend a lot of time up here today looking through the rearview mirror," but "we all take responsibility. The president takes responsibility."
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