By any measure, yesterday was the most difficult day of Obama's young presidency. He had entrusted Daschle with his most ambitious domestic priority: reducing the cost and expanding the scope of health care coverage. Even before Obama was sworn in, Daschle was traveling around the country to build support for Obama's plans.
And Daschle was not the only Obama nominee to go down in flames yesterday over a failure to pay taxes: Nancy Killefer withdrew her bid to head Obama's new office devoted to improving government performance, acknowledging she hadn't paid employment taxes for a household employee.
Several weeks ago, the Obama administration told Senate staff of a tax problem involving Killefer - she hadn't paid employment taxes for a household worker, according to a person familiar with the nomination.
In 2005, she had been hit with a $947 tax lien from the District of Columbia. The Senate at first didn't believe the issue would doom Killefer's chances, the person said. But the timing of the revelation turned out to be lethal - coming on top of both Daschle and Geithner.
Geithner was confirmed amid nagging concerns that the man who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service had himself failed to pay $34,000 in payroll taxes.
On Sunday, Daschle sent a letter of apology to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, which was to have voted on his nomination. In the letter to Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, Daschle offered regrets as well as a promise to answer any questions.
"As you can well imagine, I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed by the errors that required me to amend my tax returns," he wrote in a letter circulated to news organizations yesterday. "I apologize for the errors and profoundly regret that you have had to devote time to them. I will be happy to answer any Committee members' questions about these issues."
Daschle's withdrawal is unlikely to derail a health care reform movement that had begun gathering steam even before Obama was elected.
"If anything, there's more urgency for us to keep up the momentum," Baucus said yesterday.
