Daschle Has the Ear of the White House and the Health Industry (NYT)

August 23, 2009
Daschle Has the Ear of the White House and the Health Industry

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON — Six months have passed since the morning when Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader, under fire for not paying certain taxes, called President Obama in his study off the Oval Office to withdraw his nomination as health secretary and reform czar.

But these days it often seems as if Mr. Daschle never left the picture. With unrivaled ties on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, he talks constantly with top White House advisers, many of whom previously worked for him.

He still speaks frequently to the president, who met with him as recently as Friday morning in the Oval Office. And he remains a highly paid policy adviser to hospital, drug, pharmaceutical and other health care industry clients of Alston & Bird, the law and lobbying firm.

Now the White House and Senate Democratic leaders appear to be moving toward a blueprint for overhauling the health system, centered on nonprofit insurance cooperatives, that Mr. Daschle began promoting two months ago as a politically feasible alternative to a more muscular government-run insurance plan.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/health/policy/23daschle.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

for corporate whatever, bipartisanship??? :shrug:

As you've said in paragraph three - "He still speaks frequently to the president, who met with him as recently as Friday morning in the Oval Office. And he remains a highly paid policy adviser to hospital, drug, pharmaceutical and other health care industry clients of Alston & Bird, the law and lobbying firm."

He was almost as spineless and traitorous as Harry Reid when he had his turn in the senate. I don't count on him to do anything less than betray us and grease the pockets of his, uh, clients.