On the other hand

As I wrote in a comment to my last post, we would be singing the praises of Obama and his political genius if he had been able to pull off health care reform with some Republican support and the support of some of the health care industry itself.

But here's another take on what's been going on.

The more I hear about Tom Daschle's role behind the scenes, the more I wonder how much he's the one responsible for Obama's catering to the industry.

A NYT article today highlights this. Appointed by Obama to be not only Secretary of HHS but also the WH tzar for health care reform, he had to drop out because of a tax problem. But the article says he has been in constant contact with Obama and his advisers, advising them on policy.

Daschle tries to minimize the blatant conflict of interest in both advising the WH on policy planning and as a highly paid health care consultant to the industry itself. He says it's not a conflict of interest, because he gives the same advice to both.

Now wait just a minute. I can shoot that down in a New York minute. It does not follow that he has no conflict of interest because he gives the same advice.

No, the conflict is there when he decides what that common advice will be. He is paid a king's ransom by the industry to advise them. Obviously they wouldn't be paying him if they didn't like his advice. So the fact that he just turns around and gives the WH the same advice is supposed to make us feel good about it?

I tell you. I used to like and admire Tom Daschle. But that was before he got voted out of office and discovered how much money you can make as an ex-Senate majority leader by advising corporations that need your knowledge and connections.

Maybe it's just a prejudice of mine, but I've thought something was funny about him ever since he started wearing those red-rimmed glasses. I think it symbolized him going from a plain, midwestern, honest lawmaker to the high-flying world of wealth and privilege and corporate power.

Ralph