Daschle Withdraws His Nomination

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) will not be the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, as he has withdrawn his candidacy.

I haven't written anything on this saga - the saga being that Daschle failed to pay over $130,000 in taxes and was paid more than $200,000 by the health care industry he had been nominated to regulate - but I think Daschle did the right thing by withdrawing. Yes, he was an early ally of President Obama, the two are very close and Daschle has a lot of experience on Capitol Hill and with the behemoth of an issue that is health care. But it's queasy to expect that someone - anyone, even something with the reported integrity of Tom Daschle - could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from someone and then be expected to regulate that very same someone. It just didn't smell right.

For the record, the tipping point for Daschle seemed to be this morning's New York Times editorial (which urged him to withdraw his nomination), which you can read here.

Where's The Line?

The NYT explores whether or not the Blagojevich Senate seat scandal is really all that different from normal practices of political back-and-forth. It's perfectly legal, and common, for politicians to do things like "Well, I'll vote for your pet project, Bill A, if you vote for my pet project, Bill B. That way we both get one vote closer to passage." That kind of stuff happens all the time. The Blagojevich thing, however, seems to cut deeper. But where?

Ever since the country’s founding, prosecutors, defense lawyers and juries have been trying to define the difference between criminality and political deal-making. They have never established a clear-cut line between the offensive and the illegal, and the hours of wiretapped conversations involving Mr. Blagojevich, filled with crass, profane talk about benefiting from the Senate vacancy, may fall into a legal gray area.

Then there's this interesting quote:

“You have to wonder, How much of this guy’s problem was his language, rather than what he really did?”

Blago seemed so blatant, so open about it - while being wiretapped - that it seemed to cross the line into Unethical Land. Part of politics, though, is trading and favors. Coalitions would never be formed, and bills would never be signed into law, if there weren't some kind of deal-making taking place. So similar things to Blagogate happen pretty frequently.

I won't defend the insanely coiffed governor, but I do find it pretty disheartening that this incident appears to be not so much an isolated occurrence; it's just one of the few that gets caught. Just part of our politics, I guess.

113-0

That was the vote in the Illinois legislature recommending impeachment proceedings begin against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

113 yeas, zero nays.

Hey, you gotta admire the consistency!

Impeaches & Cream

That wasn't too hard, was it?

Just like I begged them to last week, the Illinois legislature is forming an impeachment committee that will decide whether or not Gov. Rod Blagojevich will be forcibly removed from office.

Blago's impeachment or resignation, coupled with the standard senatorial appointment by Pat Quinn, his would-be replacement, is the only thing that makes sense for Illinois. The state has no money to pay for a costly special election, and Blago cannot simply be stripped of his appointment power but allowed to stay in office. So this is an encouraging development.

Illinois, though... yikes!

Just Impeach the Guy

It's not often in politics that an impeachment acts as a simple solution. But thanks to the master class in bribery blunders given to us by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, we have the rarest of occurrences: an impeachment not only makes sense, it's the easy way out.

Earlier today, Illinois's senior (and lone remaining) senator, Dick Durbin, called on the state legislature to change state law so as to create a special election to determine who will take Barack Obama's seat on Capitol Hill. Right now, Blago still has the power to appoint whomever he wants. And he won't resign. So the thinking is, Illinois will just change the law, the people will decide who replaces Obama, and we'll all move on, right?

One little problem: the COST. Illinois is a state with a $2 billion deficit, and it's estimated that a special election would cost roughly $50 million. The state itself wouldn't pay for the special election (that honor falls to the counties themselves), but still: $50 million is an enormous amount of money. How happy will Illinois taxpayers be after their governor not only tried to sell one of their U.S. Senate seats, but cost them $50 million in the process?

Instead of reconvening on Monday to change state law, the Illinois legislature should reconvene to bring up articles of impeachment against Blagojevich. It's not like it would take very long to come up with a list of impeachable offenses - and they're not even in session right now anyway. Yes, there would be a trial. Yes, impeaching a sitting governor is slightly more complicated than "well, what you did was illegal, in fact it was REALLY illegal, so out you go." But the evidence incriminating Blago is overwhelming, and, considering the governor's approval rating is somewhere between the single- or low double-digits, it seems politically suicidal for any Illinois legislator to not vote for impeachment.

An impeachment trial would theoretically take time - but so would organizing a special election. And an impeachment trial wouldn't cost $50 million. But the other benefit of moving to impeach Blagojevich - besides saving the money - would be that maybe, just maybe, it would compel him to resign. He may not want to now, but if he's going to be impeached anyway, he might be forced to pull a Nixon and save the little face he has left by leaving. Then the lieutenant governor would assume the top role in Springfield and appoint Illinois's next U.S. senator. Problem solved, piggy bank in tact (minus that $2 billion hole).

It's an unprecedented game of political musical chairs - no matter what they decide to do. Let's just hope Illinois gives this guy what he deserves and save its beleaguered taxpayers $50 million in the process.

Wanna Buy a Senate Seat?

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning for conspiring to give away President-elect Obama's vacant Senate seat in exchange for gifts for him and his wife.

Blago apparently also planned on filling the seat himself if he didn't get an offer he liked.

Yeah, I'm sure that would have gone over really well with the people of Illinois, where has literally like a 5% approval rating or something.

Were he to take the seat himself (guess that's off the table now), Blago thought being a senator could help him remake his image in preparation for a - get this - presidential campaign in 2016.

Hmmm... something tells me that the Oval Office is permanently out of reach for Mr. Blagojevich. Just a guess, though.

Poor West Palm Beach

Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-FL), who replaced disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican, after Foley's sex scandal two years ago, now has a sex scandal all his own:

ABC News is reporting that Mahoney agreed to pay a $121,000 settlement to a former mistress who worked on his Congressional and campaign staff since his 2006 campaign.

The story also reveals that Mahoney promised her a job at the consulting firm that handles his campaign's media production.

The kicker in all this?  Mahoney's campaign in 2006 promised "a world that is safer, more moral."

Welcome to unemployment, Tim!

In Bed with Big Oil

Literally.  It turns out that Interior Department officials were caught having sex with and receiving gifts from energy companies with whom they were doing business.

And by "energy companies," we of course mean primarily oil and gas corporations: Shell, Hess Corp., Chevron and Gary-Williams Energy Corp.

Nice.