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Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader, now Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health, is forcing the President "to expend political capital he would rather use to sell his economic plan," mused NBC's White House correspondent Chuck Todd. Daschle not only had to pay back taxes on his use of a corporate car and a personal driver for three years, he is also dogged by a "perception problem" because when he was still in Congress he used to boast in political ads that he was unspoiled by power, driving his own clunker of a car to work on the Hill each day. ABC's George Stephanopoulos knowingly doubted that the chauffered limousine would ultimately derail Daschle's nomination: "A lot of members of Congress and senators have drivers or their staff drive them. They do not want to really open this up as an issue."
"It is not just taxes," ABC's Jonathan Karl piled on. "Concerns are also being raised about the more than $200,000 in speaking fees he earned from the healthcare industry"--Karl scrolled the names and amounts from insurance firms and trade associations and lobbyists--"an industry he will be responsible for reforming as HHS Secretary."
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