Unpaid taxes are the least alarming element of the Daschle story. What the car service episode indicates is that Daschle is a person who can be/has been/will be bought. He was given use of the car because he had the power, connections and moral flexibility to be counted on to deliver something in return. Like many people he is corruptible. Like most in Washington he has been corrupted.

Why did I feel like I was the only one in the country uninspired on inauguration day? I was thrilled with Obama and thankful he was the guy in the middle of the show. But as I looked at the crowd around him (from Bush and Cheney to Pelosi and Kennedy) and all I could think was that we're stuck with more of the same. Obama cannot maintain ties with any of the Washington establishment and still be an agent of change. It's time to sever his relationships with these clowns. He can no longer point to "experience" as justification for integration of so many Washington insiders. We need some outsiders..."no experience" preferred.

...if Obama rescinded the nomination. That would have sent a real signal of change.

The Democrats in the House basically did the same thing...the difference is that they have a significant majority. This is recent history but people are already forgetting it. Obama presented an initial stimulus package. It had plenty of flaws (as any package would) but it was clear in its intentions and, for the most part, remained true to them. Over the past several weeks, the House Democrats basically tore the thing apart. The current bill is barely reflective of Obama's original proposal and large portions of it fail to meet even the broadest definition of "stimulus." It is important to note that the current House bill is not at all consistent with Larry Summers' (and Obama's) initial requirement that the stimulus be "timely, targeted and temporary." Many components of the bill are unfocused and open-ended. I'm sorry that Obama has stood by his fellow Democrats in the House as they've destroyed his original proposal. He should be using his political capital and high approval ratings to call out each and every House and Senate member (including Democrats) who are using the notion of the stimulus to hide all the garbage they've poured into this bill.

The House Democrats have not taken the ball and gone home but that's because they have the power to say 'we don't like this game anymore, let's play something else.' Their behavior is no more admirable than the Republicans'.

I don't agree with all of your post but I hope Obama reads it anyway. He missed an opportunity today to rescind the nomination rather than let Daschle bow out accompanied by the requisite apologies (Daschle's) and regrets (Obama's). This was a chance to toss out a bad apple and send a message to all the others. Instead, it ends up looking like a typical Washington tax faux pas. The biggest violations on Daschle's part were not the tax problems but other points you mentioned...trouble is, you'd have a hard time finding a roomful of people in DC without similar senses of entitlement and ethical conflicts. (It's worth noting that Hillary Clinton also comes with a boatload of baggage that didn't sink her nomination but may haunt the administration as well.)

Cleaning up Washington needs to be priority number one. (Even bigger than the stimulus. As the last few weeks have shown, business-as-usual in Washington is threatening to weaken and dilute the effectiveness of the stimulus while raising its long term cost.) Other problems, such as the wealth inequality in this country, will have a better chance of working themselves out if we can strip the Washington insiders of their outsized influence.

Having just traveled with my 2 year old and infant I can share two perspectives:

My wife and I hate the security checkpoints more than ever.

My 2 year old loves them.

These days, most airports look and feel like your average mall. The security checkpoint, along with the baggage carousel (another stressful point for parents) and a peak inside the cockpit, provides an experience unique to air travel and I think kids probably get a kick out of it. While his parents were stressing over laptops, shoe removal, 3-1-1 and having baby formula tested, our son was having a blast watching the luggage go into the "tunnel," walking through the security gate and basically ignoring as many TSA officials as possible. I think he'd love to reenact the scene with this toy at home.

I'd also add that I don't feel like the escalation in airport security is quite as dramatic as portrayed here and elsewhere. As a kid growing up the seventies I have memories of airport security that are not that much different than what we deal with today. Dealing with shoes and laptops might be more annoying but the basic elements -- metal detector, x-ray machine -- have been in place for a long time. This toy is relevant not only to Bush-era security measures but to most of the modern era of air travel.