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On the lowest level of the J.W. Marriott in downtown D.C., hundreds of leading health care experts attending the AcademyHealth's conference are still reeling from the announcement of Daschle's withdrawal. "Honest to god, I'm stupefied by this," said Marie Michnich from the Institute of Medicine, shortly after the news broke this afternoon. "Now, to see all the work that's been lost. We had a sense of how it was going to work--how we were going to coordinate [health care reform] with the White House. And now we're just spinning." Others seemed similarly flabbergasted. "No, no, no--oh no!" exclaimed Judith Leavitt,...

During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden insisted that paying taxes is a patriotic duty. No, scratch that. He said that supporting a tax hike was the American thing to do. “It’s time to be patriotic,” he told America’s putative tax slackers. When asked whether he might be questioning the patriotism of people who don’t want higher taxes, Biden took things to the next rhetorical level. Forget patriotism, said Joe, paying higher taxes is a religious obligation to help your fellow man. So the senator who gave an average of $369 a year to charity over the previous decade fulfills a...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama on Tuesday gave up his nomination fight for Tom Daschle and a second high-profile appointee who failed to pay all their taxes, fearing ugly confirmation battles that would undercut his claims to ethical high ground and cripple his presidency in just its second week. "I screwed up," he declared. "It's important for this administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules - you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes," Obama said in one of a series of interviews with TV anchors....

Now that Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination for health secretary because of his failure to pay taxes, and Nancy Killefer, who was appointed chief performance officer and deputy OMB director, has also withdrawn because of non-payment of taxes, it is time for Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner to do exactly the same. Geithner never answered the question put to him by senators Kyl and Bunning: Would he have paid his back taxes if he were not nominated to run the Treasury? His issue has never been resolved. He will never have the full trust of the country. Consider this: Daschle...

Obama's hopes DaschledHis ties to the former senator may have blinded him to potential ethics problems -- but in the end, the president takes the blame. By Mike Madden Feb. 4, 2009 | WASHINGTON -- Things would probably have gone a lot more smoothly for Tom Daschle if the whole country worked the way Washington does, at least at its most stratified levels. You serve in a high government post for a while, then you lose an election, and your friends step in to support you with helpful things like, say, a $1 million-a-year job in private equity, and a...

Annual Tax Turkey AwardsWednesday, 4 February 2009, 2:18 pm New York, NY: Brendan Pack, CEO of Tax Academy.com, a multimillion dollar company based in New York City and services over 100,000 companies, has announced today the annual Tax Turkey awards being given to government officials for their potential tax-related problems. The winner will receive a 14k gold "Tax Turkey" plaque. The top five are as follows: Caroline Kennedy: Quit her bid for Senate seat due to "personal" reasons, including "tax" problems. Sources cite that Kennedy ended her campaign for Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat due to "potentially embarrassing" situations with...

Obama's first choice for HHS Secretary, former-Senator Tom Daschle, just withdrew his name from nomination after not reporting limo service on his taxes and making this old campaign ad driving himself to work hilariously ironic.

Kidwell Found Guilty Of All Counts In Tax Evasion Caseposted February 3, 2009 A federal jury late Tuesday morning returned guilty verdicts on all five felony counts on tax evasion charges against Christian counselor Chris Kidwell. He remains free on bond, and a sentencing date has not yet been set. The counts carry up to five years in prison, but his sentencing range is expected to be between 21 and 27 months. The charges also carry a possible fine up to $250,000. Defense attorneys had contended he did not report large chunks of his income because he is lost when...

To many, the New York Times is a dinosaur, doomed to go the way of all stegosauri. But the Gray Lady still holds sway in one sector of our society: the Democratic party. We saw an illustration of the paper’s influence today, when Tom Daschle, explaining to Andrea Mitchell his decision to withdraw his name as HHS Secretary nominee, cited today’s Times’ editorial calling for his head. On today’s Hardball, Chris Matthews both acknowledged and complained of the Times’ inordinate influence. Calling the paper “dictatorial,” he described it as “the engine of the Democratic party.” Matthews was kibitzing the Daschle...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much for sitting down with us today. Explain what happened today, Tom Daschle, you've let one of the most important domestic issues, which is health care, get caught up in what looks to many Americans like politics as usual. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think what happened was that Tom made an assessment that having made a mistake on his taxes that he took responsibility for, and indicated was a mistake, made the assessment that he was going to be too much of a distraction in trying to lead what...

Today in Washington, Katie sat down with President Barack Obama at the White House. What follows is a short preview of the interview. Katie Couric: Tom Daschle withdrew his name this afternoon, you issued a statement saying, quote, you accept his decision with "sadness and regret." Did you try to talk him out of it? President Barack Obama: Well, you know we had a conversation and obviously that conversation's private, but, uh, it's frustrating for me and it's something that I take responsibility for. Tom, I think, is an outstanding individual. I am absolutely convinced that he would've been the...

Obama Takes Blame as Daschle Withdraws Nomination for HHS Post Former Senator Says He 'Will Not Be a Distraction;' Obama: 'I Screwed Up' By NAFTALI BENDAVID, LAURA MECKLER and JONATHAN WEISMAN WASHINGTON -- Former Sen. Tom Daschle, under fire for his failure to pay more than $140,000 in taxes and interest on time, withdrew his nomination to be secretary of health and human services, saying he had lost the confidence of the Congress. President Barack Obama is taking responsibility for mistakes in the handling of the tax controversy that led to Mr. Daschle's withdrawal, saying: "I screwed up." The president...

LOL!

How quickly they fall. Tom Daschle, who just yesterday had the full backing of President Barack Obama, has announced he is withdrawing his name from consideration as Health and Humans Services secretary. For both Daschle and Obama, it has been a rough ride, calling into question the latter’s judgment and skill as a chief executive. President Barack Obama rode into Washington on a veritable cloud of goodwill and sky-high expectations. The mainstream media had swooned over his transition with some justification. They had swooned over his inaugural speech with far less. But hopes, even among conservatives, were high for a...

Saw this headline on a video on Bloomberg.com. Can't post a link. Now that would beat all.

Axelrod thinks Daschele withdrawing says something about his character. What?!!! Is this Chicago change we can not believe in?

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two of President Barack Obama's top picks for government jobs sensationally withdrew Tuesday, in bombshell announcements which rocked his young administration and tested his vow to clean up politics. Tom Daschle, the nominee to lead Obama's ambitious healthcare reform and Nancy Killefer, his choice for budget watchdog both quit after becoming engulfed in storms over past unpaid taxes. The departures were the first grave challenge to Obama's administration, distracted from his effort to force his huge economic stimulus plan through Congress and called his promise of a new era of ethical politics into question. "This morning, Tom...

Is this Tom Daschle rally? Drug stocks have been on fire since the news that public pharma enemy No. 1 is gone. We had good numbers from Schering-Plough (SGP) and Merck (MRK) but not this good! Abbott Labs (ABT) is on a breakout. Gilead (GILD) was looking lower, and then boom, Daschle's gone. Next thing you know, you have a leader, and that leader is taking up a lot of the soft goods side! The drugs do have pin action today, something that can happen when you have a group breaking out this hard. You can see another leg higher...

In keeping with the "politics of change" as defined by the Democratic party President Barack "My Middle Name is Hussein Dammit" Obama announced two new picks to his administration, Bernie Madoff and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich......