WASHINGTON – Barack Obama on Tuesday abandoned his nomination fight for Tom Daschle and a second high-profile appointee who failed to pay all their taxes, fearing ugly confirmation battles that would undercut his claims to ethical high ground and cripple his presidency in just its second week. "I screwed up," Obama declared.

"It's important for this administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules — you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes," Obama said in one of a series of interviews with TV anchors.

"I'm frustrated with myself, with our team. ... I'm here on television saying I screwed up," Obama said on NBC's "Nightly News with Brian Williams." He repeated virtually the same words in several other interviews.

Hours earlier, the White House had announced that Daschle had asked to be removed from consideration as health and human services secretary and that Nancy Killefer had made the same request concerning what was to be her groundbreaking appointment as a chief performance officer to make the entire government run better.

Daschle said in a brief letter to Obama that he refused to "be a distraction" from the new president's drive for health care reform. Obama said neither he nor Daschle excused the former Senate Democratic leader's tax errors but that he accepted his friend's decision "with sadness and regret."

Unsightly personal tax problems had been piling up for the new administration. Last week, the Senate confirmed Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, but only after days of controversy over the fact that the man who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service had only belatedly paid $34,000 in income taxes.

Bill Richardson bowed out, too, though his difficulties didn't involve personal taxes. The New Mexico governor, who was Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, withdrew amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors.

Questions about Daschle's failure to fully pay his taxes from 2005 through 2007 had been increasing since they came to light last Friday. Daschle overlooked taxes on income for consulting work and personal use of a car and driver, and also deducted more in charitable contributions than he should have. To resolve it, he paid $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest last month.

Daschle, chosen to lead the administration's push for sweeping health care reform, also was facing questions about potential conflicts of interests related to speaking fees he accepted from health care interests and about the advice he provided to health insurers and hospitals through his work at a law firm.

Killefer, an executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., had been chosen by Obama to serve in two roles: as the first chief performance officer in a White House and as a deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget.

When Obama announced Killefer to much fanfare in early January, The Associated Press reported that the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home in 2005 for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. She resolved the tax error five months after the lien was filed. Since then, administration officials had refused to say whether her tax problems extended beyond that one issue.

By Tuesday, the tax questions had reached critical mass.

"This is a self-induced injury that I'm angry about, and we're going to make sure we get it fixed," Obama said on ABC's "World News."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the choice to step aside was Daschle's alone and that the former senator "did not get a signal" from the White House to do so. Daschle and Obama spoke Tuesday, and the president was surprised at the news, said White House senior adviser David Axelrod.

Democratic lawmakers were surprised, too — and disappointed. Axelrod rushed to Capitol Hill to soothe frayed nerves.

"I was a little stunned. I thought he was going to get confirmed," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the panel that would have voted on Daschle's nomination. "It's regrettable."

Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Daschle's former Democratic colleagues had leapt to the former Democratic leader's defense. And it seemed that the clubby way that senators treat one of their own was likely to help Daschle survive the controversy.

But particularly after the divisive Geithner debate and vote, it apparently became too bitter a pill. Tax issues are easy for the public to understand, and also particularly easy to resent in wealthy officials at a time of widespread economic crisis.

They also created an opening for a drumbeat of criticism from Republicans and on newspaper editorial pages that Obama was engaging in a double standard: proclaiming his administration to be more ethical, responsible and special interest-free than his predecessors' and yet carving out exceptions almost daily.

GOP Sen. John Ensign of Nevada said Daschle was going to be faced with tough questions from committee members, among them how the wealth he amassed from a lobbying firm — while not technically registered as a lobbyist — "passes the smell test."

"I think he saved the president from being embarrassed next week in a public hearing," Ensign said.

But even while Obama aimed to stave off potentially crippling problems in one corner with the withdrawals, he created some new ones.

Obama has promised that moving toward universal health care coverage is one of the pillars of first 100 days agenda — a heavy lift that many believed Daschle, with his long experience in Washington, was uniquely qualified for. Daschle was going to wear two hats for Obama, as White House health czar on top of the post leading the Health and Human Services Department.

"We're going to do health care reform," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said flatly after the nomination withdrawal. But others reacted differently.

"It really sets us back a step," said Sen. **** Durbin, D-Ill. "Because he was such a talent. I mean he understood Congress, serving in the House and Senate he certainly had the confidence of the president."

Among those considered for the post before it went to Daschle was Howard Dean, the physician-turned-politician who ran for president in 2004 and recently left as head of the Democratic National Committee. Other possible replacements include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_failed_nominees


Now that's something you would never see Bush or any other politician do.
Admit on camera that they screwed up....

Finally openness in the White House.

"Times, they are a chang'n"

I love a man that can communicate and admit when he's wrong.

Fanta, you had me wondering what you screwed up.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius

I like her...

So you better start swimmin' or youll sink like a stone...

She was first elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1986. In 1994 she left the House to run for state insurance commissioner and stunned political forecasters by winning – the first time a Democrat had won in more than 100 years. She is credited with bringing the agency out from under the influence of the insurance industry. She refused to take campaign contributions from insurers and blocked the proposed merger of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's largest health insurer, with an Indiana-based company. The decision by Sebelius marked the first time the corporation had been rebuffed in its acquisition attempts."

Unfortunately I think some folks see that as weakness. I don't, I like that kind of directness. I didn't really expect his first appointments to go all that smoothly, he had a good run but it was bound to hit bumps.

Oh no I won't. I got my Barbie floaties to keep me up!

Always come prepared.

I really, realy liked his 1966 Live from Royal Albert Hall recording

Truely a high water mark in the history of rock.

for those dylan fans who may not have heard it yet, you owe yourself a listen.

Is that easy to acquire?

Especially since most in Washington are corrupt.
Everyone acts like finding someone to fill a cabinet position, without a blemish on their record, is easy.
Its not, and the task is exasperated by the promise Obama made to keep the government open.
He wasn't these peoples accountant, and he didn't try to hide their faults like so many before him.
Esp Bush, who lied about everything and hid behind executive privilege as a way to close the blinds on what was happening in his administration.

these days, it's available on cd.

before it was on cd, it was only available via bootleg copies and wsa often refered to as the Judas concert.

So called because it was one of the first times Dylan "plugged in"

the first CD (or first two records) is all acoustic, solo stuff

the second cd features Dylan on electric guitar and full accompaniment after intermission. When he comes out with the band, the crowd boos the hell out of him. by the end, he's won them over.

Neat.

Bush earned his poor approval rating.

Too many of these remaining Bushies are unwilling to even give Obama a chance.
Its spite on their part and frankly its sickening to see.

So has the currently seated congress, about whom I'm far more concerned than the "Annointed One" and whose approval rating is at historical lows and only continues to sink...

I agree, and unfortunately because he is not willing to hide things he's going to have a difficult time with people that think this is a sign he is corrupt as well, instead of the opposite. The more people that go down they will blame him instead of the people going down. If that made sense.

McCain and Palin did a good job on the american people with thier constant drum beat about associations, it's still a sore point to the point that every time someone goes down it will be like this.

I can't wait until this is over and everyone that is going to be appointed is in office so we can actually see how things are going to work. Anyway I hope that made some sense, it's late and I am a bit tired.

Anointed one?

So which ones are your representatives?

The only reason they are there is because the people of your state put them there.
The rest of the country cant clean up your mess. Only you can!

What are you going to do about it?
That's the question you should be asking your self and your neighbors.

Oh ya, it's not hard to notice that. I am actually embarassed for them sometimes, because it's so obvious. I have been watching cSpan a lot lately and those who don't like him are noticably watching every word they say...