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Puff of Evil

Tom "Puff" DaschleChrissy Matthews may still get a tingle from the mere thought of  Barack Obama, but Matthews’ tingle does not extend across the pond, Toby Harnden, Telegraph [1](UK)

Obama, however, cannot get away indefinitely with high-minded but empty statements about changing Washington and tough ethical rules that are enforced except when it suits him.Daschle could yet help reform a broken healthcare system and emerge as a hero to the common man.

If not, however, his very presence in the cabinet might ultimately come to be seen as a symbol of Obama’s hypocrisy

BO  is the master of  soaring campaign rhetoric.    As an executive BO has demonstrated the propsnsity to trip over snags that he himself has planted.    

I do question the notion that Puff Daschle is the (one) face of the Obama administration.   If I were to put one face the adminstration it would be that of Eric Holder.   Yet Daschle does represent the Obama practice of saying one thing while doing another.    The Brits can see it.   So will the the American voters.

Addendum:(Bit)  I’m afraid I’m going to steal a bit of your fire, here. David; I feel a serious rant coming on.

WASHINGTON (AP) – [2]Fighting to salvage his Cabinet nomination, Tom Daschle pleaded his case Monday evening in a closed meeting with former Senate colleagues after publicly apologizing for failing to pay more than $120,000 in taxes. President Barack Obama said he was “absolutely” sticking with his nominee for health secretary, and a key senator added an important endorsement.

The White House both underscored the magnitude of the problem and tried to downplay it in the space of seven words. “Nobody’s perfect,” said press secretary Robert Gibbs. “It was a serious mistake. …” 

No, it was a crime. It’s an outragethat this slimeball is even being considered for this position. The average man on the street has more in the way of ethics than Tom Daschle has demonstated himself to have.  He may well have a fairly speciifc skill set… (Frankly I don’t think so, but let’s run with it on the assumption he does) but what good is that skillset without ethics? 

To your point, David, he may well not be the face of the Obama administration, but I see that as a function of there being so many Democrats inside and outside this administration, who are to say the  very least ethically challanged, and the ones currently on that long list are only the ones who have been caught.  When there is this amount of ethics lapses on the surface, what else is going on under that polished surface?

It’s as I said yesterday:

At some point, we out here in flyover country have to admit to ourselves that there’s a pattern here that is at least optically challenging. The more observant among this will have to admit that it is far more than that. It is outright criminality, and a pattern of it which is directly connected to the Obama [3] administration.

I [4]‘ll go even further; It’s time to admit to ourselves that all this business surrounding the Blagojevich impeachment, and the upcoming criminal trial, was trying to tell us something rather crucial that we as a nation ignored last November. To my mind, it amplifies the question of Obama [3] being able to arise from that fetid sewer known as Chicago politics, without bringing it’s values… or the lack of them, with him to the White House [5]. Perhaps, given the level of warning we’ve had, we shouldn’t be surprised at what we see today.

The President tells us that he’s chosen people with a particularly vital skillset, and that ‘minor’ ethics problems shouldn’t block their nomination because these positions are imporatnt… that current conditions make their import ‘too big to fail’. Tell me, please, at what point in our nations history were they NOT ‘too big to fail’? At what point would a failure not have caused our nation great harm? Yet, we never had it offered up to us that ethics lapses could or should be ignored for these positions…. before the current crop of Democrats came along, of course.

I’m going to send a message, here to Sen. Mitch McConnell :

You’re blowing this. Grow a pair for goshsakes and take a stand for ethics. The first thing… the VERY first thing that is needed in any government position is ethics. Just sitting back and withholding comment while the Democrats offer up a long string of ethically challanged doesn’t do the country any good… and thereby does YOU and the Republicans no good, because it makes the Republicans party to the ethics problems.

If you can’t find it in you to stand up and start screaming over this stuff, it’s time to find someone to replace YOU, as well.