Oval Office Visit Hints at Daschle's Role

President Consulting Man He Once Wanted as Czar on the Issue
By Philip Rucker and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 22, 2009

Former Senate majority leader Thomas A. Daschle's visit to the Oval Office on Friday, at the invitation of President Obama, was more than just a meeting between two loyal friends and political allies. It also served as a reminder of what might have been.

As Obama's health-care agenda teeters in Congress, the White House listed the private meeting on the president's public schedule, sending a signal that Obama is still consulting Daschle on his top domestic policy priority. An assiduous student of health policy and an adept creature of the Senate, Daschle was Obama's first pick to oversee his reforms, but a firestorm over Daschle's failure to pay about $146,000 in taxes on time prompted the South Dakota Democrat in February to withdraw his nomination to be secretary of health and human services.

Since returning to the private sector, Daschle has served a dual role on health care. He has informally advised high-ranking administration officials, including senior aide Pete Rouse and health-care reform czar Nancy-Ann DeParle, who took over half of the job Obama created for Daschle. On television shows, in speeches and at symposiums, he has been a vocal advocate for a universal coverage plan that includes the public insurance option.

But Daschle is also working closely with lobbyists, through his job at the Alston and Bird law firm, as an adviser to United Health Group, one of the nation's largest insurance companies. The insurance industry opposes the public option.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082103633.html?hpid=topnews

Daschle makes me really uncomfortable.

He sucked as leader of the Senate. He was defeated while leader of the Senate. He immediately cashes out by pimping his access to the corporate elite.

but then again, he is like them.