Friday, January 30, 2009

Yet Another Obama Cabinet Nominee Has Tax Problems...This time it's Daschle

When I heard former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle was Obama's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, I was kicking myself that I had allowed myself to be convinced by family (and wishful thinking) to throw away my rather large leftover stock of "DUMP DASCHLE" bumper stickers when we moved from South Dakota to Nebraska.

I hadn't realized that within about two years, we'd soon be living in a parallel dimension, so I was convinced that Daschle would not reappear to haunt us. How naive.

In between sorting through the mess that is is the Republican party, scanning the horizon to found an articulate Conservative leader only to despair of finding one, and trying to figure out what nightmares are contained in the "Stimulus" Package, I have only intermittently considered the scary prospect of Tom Daschle as head of the HHS, let alone what could be done to stop his appointment.

A very faint glimmer of hope has appeared on the horizon.

Fox News just reported that the former Senator is one more in a growing list of problematic Obama appointees to either have conflicts of interest (think Billary) or, as in this case, tax problems. Fox has not posted anything on its website yet, but the Wall Street Journal put something up here.

From the perspective of a former (and likely returning in the future) South Dakotan, the fact that his state voted him out of office even though he held the influential position of Minority Leader should say a lot, considering the population of +700,000. He found it a very delicate tight rope walk to vote just enough the right way to keep South Dakotans happy and pander to the left, as evidenced by this discussion on the Daily Kos.

You know what they say about a man serving two masters.

It is my firm opinion that one of the many mistakes made by Daschle was his very visible support of the Gore campaign during the Election 2000 mess in Florida, including a conference call with other prominent Congressional Democrats. A CNN transcript, found here, gives a taste of how Daschle handled himself.

Daschle's position was ridiculous and not at all well received by his constituents, considering his state supported George W. Bush at a rate of over 60% to a very weak 37% for Gore. I saw it as the beginning of the end.

Of course, Daschle disappeared from the state of South Dakota the minute he was ousted from office. A perusal of tonight's Journal story gives us some clue as to what he's been up to. Regardless of these activities, he would be a total nightmare as head of the HHS when there's no mistaking that Universal Health Care is on the way.

I'm aware of some of his great ideas for health care as administered by the US government, which, includes the creation of a board just like the Fed, literally called "Fed Health". Good God. That Fed sure has done a bang up job of keeping our financial system healthy, hasn't it? Let's just rush to start up another Fed-like board, but instead of the monetary system, let's turn our health care over to something like that. As Tony Blankley's pointed out in his excellent summary of Dachle's book on health care in The Washington Times on November 26, 2008 , Daschle thinks things like angiograms are wasteful spending, and that physicians can't "help themselves" from doing something about blockages in the arteries, "however slight".

The moral of this story? Tom Daschle needs to be dumped, again. His $100,000 "oversight" in paying for a free car and driver provides some kind of opening to doing that. His appointment is not directly related to the financial crisis as was Geithner's so the "urgency" factor is going to be harder to exploit. Also, there is the piling on factor. How many lobbyists and tax evaders can you appoint, even if you are Barack Obama, before it becomes to difficult to justify ignoring?

So, a shout out to Senate Republicans, "Hello!! Is anybody home?" How many more immoral, unethical, non-taxpaying appointees are you going to confirm?

Anyone who gives a darn should at least try to stop Daschle's appointment by contacting their Senators.

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Saturday, January 10, 2009

Conservatives Suffering From Stockholm Syndrome

One of the funniest things I have heard in a while is a comment by a caller into the Mike Gallagher show. She assessed Republicans and "so-called" Conservatives who have been going along with all of the bailouts, stimulus packages, and other Leftist measures, as suffering from "Stockholm Syndrome".

For those not familiar, this "condition" is defined as, " An extraordinary phenomenon in which a hostage begins to identify with and grow sympathetic to their captor."(1) The syndrome is so called based on the reaction of hostages taken in a violent 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm Sweden. (More, here.)

Mike Gallagher's witty caller was certainly funny. Like I said, one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. Sometimes it does seem like the Democratic party leadership on Capitol hill must be at least, intermittently, holding some Republican politicians and even some "Conservative" pundits hostage. I've often wondered if there's some bizarre catch and release / re-catch and re-release program going on behind the scenes.

Perhaps the whole bunch has been undergoing a Patty Hearst type of brainwashing in some Congressional closet. The caller might be on to something....

While an amusing explanation, I'm buying this explanation about as much a I bought into the Simpson Dream Team's explanation of "if they do not fit, you must acquit."

As attractive as a million amusing and innocuous explanations may be for what appears to be a near total collapse of principles in the Republican party, no amusement, no explanation explains, let alone begins to deal with the truth that must be faced.

Sources:
1) "Definition of Stockholm Syndrome". Medicine.net

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