Daschle Withdraws Cabinet Bid

Major issues in the wake of Daschle's withdrawal

(NEWSER) - Tom Daschle gave up his nomination for Health and Human Services Secretary, raising a host of questions, Matthew Cooper writes at Talking Points Memo. Did an issue besides tax problems arise? Was the decision really Daschle’s, or the administration’s? Some other big issues:

1. How many Obama nominees will be felled by tax issues? If Geithner’s $34,000 is OK but Daschle’s $140,000 isn’t, where is that line?
2. Beyond heading the HHS, Daschle was billed by Obama as the pointman for the overhaul of the health care system. Who will lead the charge now?

Kansas gov says she's had no meetings on joining the Obama Cabinet

(AP) - Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, mentioned as a top candidate for health secretary, said today she has not talked with President Barack Obama about joining his Cabinet. "There really isn't anything to tell. I haven't had any meetings about the position," Sebelius, 60, said in an interview with the AP during the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. More»

HHS nominee knew his taxes needed fixing; didn't know how much

(NEWSER) - Health secretary-designate Tom Daschle didn’t tell the Obama administration that he owed years of back taxes until a month after he’d been nominated, the Washington Post reports. He paid $140,000 in taxes January 2 and told government leaders about it two days later. He had known his taxes needed fixing but didn’t know the “jaw-dropping” amount owed and thought his accountant was dealing with it, a rep said. More»

Will head health transition

(NEWSER) - Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle has been offered, and intends to accept, a post as Barack Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Roll Call reports. Daschle will also head the health care policy transition group. Nearly all of Obama’s transition policy working group heads are expected to land in top administration jobs. More»

Clinton a strong secretary, but not yet administration's voice

(NEWSER) - Ask Hillary Clinton or her staff about President Obama and they’ll praise him and tell you the relationship between the two really is strong. But the tensions between the State Department and White House are starting to show, writes Joe Klein . The president’s foreign policy hasn’t yet yielded results, and on her recent Pakistan trip, Clinton gave the first hints that she’d like to assert her independence—and move beyond what Klein calls “the Rodney King ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ phase.” More»