The Daschle Problem

By Brian Beutler

I don’t feel like the top job at the Department of Health and Human Services is such a complicated position that only Tom Daschle can do it, and in that regard, I think it would make some sense for Obama to keep Daschle in the White House and find somebody who isn’t blemished in the ways he is to run the agency.

But if I’m reading these two posts by Ezra Klein correctly, then it seems to me that if what you want most from Obama is decent, passable legislation, there’s a reasonable, though not clear-cut, case for Daschle, whereas if what you want most from Obama is a good-faith attempt to rid Washington of corruption and excess, then he’s got to go.