Darling Dangling Dapper Daschle Dashes

Enter Jason who speaketh:

No statement yet but it's happening soon. Personally, I could care less about him not paying his taxes on a driver he employed to take him around town in a car. Nor do I care about Tim Geithner's tax problems or anybody else's tax problems. For heaven's sake, we elected a complete idiot for eight years and somehow he was allowed to escape practically unharmed by the media and now a lowly department head gets the ax grinded into him and has to withdraw his nomination??? We had Rummy issuing torture memos and orders to violate international treaties, and where was Anderson Cooper's outrage then? The VP is holding secret meetings with oil industry lobbyists and never a word said or uttered. Where was the NY Times editorial board then? Oh, yeah the NY Times was too busy employing figure heads who took the notes passed along by the VP's guy pal Scooter and printing them on page A1 all in an effort to appear patriotic. Well where is their patriotism now?

All this has done has poured more blood into the water, just as the stimulus bill is going to be voted on in the Senate. Now, watch every Repub but three or four will vote against the stimulus bill and all will have been for naught. Are we to allow every editorial board in this country the right to veto a president's pick to head an agency? Who sits on the NY Times editorial board anyone? And what exactly is their expertise when it comes to dealing with issues that face the country. The NY Times will be an online only publication in about 10 years, so apparently they're not even good at what they're supposed to be good at! Are we going to allow the minority party to dictate the stimulus bill? The reason why they're the minority party is because a minority of Americans agrees with them. Include them in the discussions, but I would rather see no Repubs vote for a bill than to see half of them vote for it, because in the latter's instance something would definitely be wrong with the final bill.

I suppose it's good to get all of the bad stuff out of the way now. Although, the timing really sucks. The president is going to be speaking to all the networks tonight and instead of talking about trying to reboot the economy and pass his stimulus package, the network anchors are all going to imitate O'Reilly and Limbaugh and try and outmaneuver each other on who can play the best gotcha, inside-Washington parlor game. No wonder good help is hard to find in DC. Who would want to go through this process?

Patricia enters and has her turn:

I am glad! Really! O campaigned on CHANGE and with the treas. sec. and Daschle's IRS problems and all Daschle's connections, I thought this a.m.: What has changed? I say; GOOD RIDDANCE. It was like all his own cronies coming out of the woodwk to talk about how great he is. Oh yeah, if he's so great you mean to tell me he didn't know about the $ due to the IRS 'til Jan.? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. He got caught wi. his pants down and oh no, he paid the IRS and now it looks like he could have put it off even longer! Poor old Tom. I guess he'll now have to forgo the taxis he started taking yesterday to Cap Hill for his limousine. Cry me a river.

Jason replies:

HAHAHA, cry me a river, yes. I don't feel sorry for Daschle. All these public officials should no better. My point has more to do with the media. We just found out that billions of dollars of our money was spent by Wall Street on bonuses and where is the media outrage? You don't see those managers of CEOs getting fired or having to repay the money? Why aren't those people blacklisted like these appointments to be cabinet secretary? It seems that they made mistakes and they have owned up to their mistakes and then some but still they get crucified? This is the kind of thing which led that guy in the Clinton admin to kill himself. It's petty, stupid, and ridiculous at a time when the country needs the best and the brightest to handle our nation's most stressing problems, and the NY Times editorial board is wasting its space on this??? Good thing I never went through with my daily subscription to them. I hope that ten years from now their print addition will be in a museum along with the dinosaurs!!!

Maureen squeaks:

p., relatively speaking, i think i am with jason on this one. m.

DeeDee comes in and adds her two cents:

Daschle knew he has tax problems but didn't take care of it immediately. Why didn't he tell the truth to Obama team? That should solve all the probs from the beginning.

OK, bets?

Patricia exclaims with vengeance:

I totally agree, DeeDee! Like whatzizsis name at Treas. now. Daschle didn't pay the tax since he thought he could get away with it until discovered by the vetting process. You'd think someone wi. that much $ would consider his tax debt a mite, but oh no, those greedy pigs get greedier. Show me to the trough, please, so I can load up some more.

What president has had this much trouble wi. so many Cabinet nominees so early in the game? Oh, oh...I can hear the Washington insider comments growing by leaps and bounds.

DeeDee responds:

Tim Geithner.. oh no, there's another one in line, Obama's choice for Chief Performance Officer..via TPM..

Presidents need to think big, isolate the source of problems and act to fix them. So I think Obama needs to abolish the IRS so his appointees can get confirmed and his program move forward. (Ed's note added later: Abolish the IRS....oh, hahaha, tweedledum and tweedledee, hahaha. Then who would pay for the Fat Cats' Bailouts? hahaha)

Jason fumes and adds a diatribe by Andrew Sullivan which The Editor chose to omit since this is getting lengthy and is anyone still reading?

From Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic: just goes to show what a truly shameful thing that has happened. Now we’ll get an more second-rate nominee who will have no clout to do anything about the uninsured, sky-high insurance rates, prescription drug costs, all of that. All because of petty, Washington politics. It’s a good thing I no longer live anywhere near the place. I would be ashamed.

Patricia's anger is not assuaged:

Yep, Daschle certainly knew the industry all right since it forked over to him $zillions. Line thy pockets, knave! Why, methinks this rings true of Duchess Clinton, TO WIT. Prayeth, what change hath El Presidente Obama wrought with his Knights of Greed?

Jason exclaims as he drives out of sight:

Oh you are going to hang on this one!!!!!
The Politico is reporting that Phil Bredesen, Jim Cooper, Howard Dean, and Bill Bradley are possibilities for HHS Secretary!

Patricia cries:

Show me the noose!

The Tennessee State Society on Capitol Hill

It was the Annual Congressional Reception in the Mansfield Room at the Capitol.

An elegant, tasteful room although not as large as the one where the 2007 event was celebrated. And a smaller crowd, and smaller number of Congressional representatives, too.

Last year most all of the Tennessee congressional representatives attended, including both U.S. Senators who are Republicans, Lamar Alexander and then, the newly elected Bob Corker, now tardy for failing to submit his annual financial disclosure statement due in May. (He got an extension since all his "ducks were not in a row.").
Marsha Blackburn (R-Middle, West, and Northern Tennessee (gerrymandering, you know) was also missing in action, likely working repair on her own financial woes, including trying to answer some of the 33 letters she has received from the Federal Election Commission about faulty reports of her campaign finances.

Last week Congressman John Duncan (R-Knoxville) and Congressman Jim Cooper (D-Nashville) were the only representatives who did show up, and both engagingly addressed those present (who numbered about 60). They spoke highly of each other and applauded the relationships among Tennessee congresspeople who actually get along (mostly) and work productively together, unlike some other states, they said, which they did not name.

John Duncan, a conservative, is admired and well respected by Democrats, too, for his sincerity and his always fierce opposition to the Iraq War, even when it was popular to support it six years ago.

Jim Cooper is a Blue Dog, but I shall not hold that against him. He well represents his constituency.

An important no-show! Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), the incoming honorary chair of the Society, replacing Congressman Duncan, the 2007 honorary chair. Perhaps Rep. Cohen was dealing with the Washington Post since it ran a big story the next day on him and his opponent, Nikki Tinker, whom Emily's List is supporting.

Attending: Mostly interns or intern alums.
Average Age: Under 30
Dress: Suits
Food: Some hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine
Caucasians: 97%
Cost: Membership in the Society is $20/year. A great value for several parties throughout the year, usually funded by lobbyists.