"There are whores and there are whores, and then there's Tom Daschle."

I kind of always figured there was a reason high priced hookers were high priced, and I kind of figured it was because they were really good at what they do.

So Daschle must also be really good at what he does, right? And the market values, and prices, that?

Doesn't say much for the morality, but it explains the market value ascribed to a Daschle in Washington. He must be taken aback upon seeing an article like this (if any of his friends dare show it to him), since as far as he knows he's only ever done what seemed to be considered valuable and worthwhile to those he has been trying to impress: the ones in power or with money. He has the trappings to show he must be good at it. What's with the criticism? Isn't the quoted passage a compliment?

[I wrote this around midnight last night, but held off posting it. Since I'm usually in agreement with, or to the left of, Glenn and many of the commenters here, I wanted to think more about it. Then I see that this morning's WSJ -- they who continue to publish John Yoo's thoughts as if they are worth listening to -- put out a piece about Daschle along Glenn's own lines. That has to trouble Glenn some. So I'll post this now, even though some of the concepts here have been suggested and by some who I usually would be loathe to be seen to agree with about anything....]

...

Daschle is morally unfit to hold office for Obama? I don’t know a lot about Daschle, but I must say that I’m not impressed by the way this repudiation has been advocated here.

“He spent 20+ years in the House of Representatives” – sorry, but that fact, in and of itself, reflects experience, not chopped liver. Criticizing a career politician for being a career politician doesn’t really fly, does it? Everywhere else around Washington, being a “career politician” gets one a Chairmanship or other trapping of respect and wisdom; Daschle got targeted by the Bush/Rove combine and was skunked out of office. That somebody would consider his experience valuable is hardly a viable condemnation.

“He is beholden to Health Care special interests” – the story says he went to work for Alston & Bird, which I do not understand to be ipso facto a known sin, and if he received $5 million there over the course of two years as written, it does not seem that $220K would fairly be considered a disproportionately dominating chunk of that amount that would justify a presumption of being “controlled” should he choose to give up that kind of revenue stream to re-enter the government for, what, $100+K per year? He had a chauffeured Cadillac while earning $2.5M/year? Please. Tell me there's more than that.

“His marital record is shady and his second wife was a beauty queen who has been a successful lobbyist.” The Left is going to do this to Democrats now, and do it FIRST? Attaboy, that's all I can say. I’m not here to praise Newt Gingrich or John McCain, but this is a cheesy Kerry-like attack that is not worthy of the debate that needs to be had about appointing Daschle to some government position. This is a hypocritical Republican smear tactic and that’s where it should remain unless there is something more directly relevant to what’s going on here and now.

I usually hang on every word Glenn writes, but I just don’t find this particular argument persuasive in this instance. There may be other reasons why Daschle shouldn’t be entrusted with a position in Obama’s cabinet (I have much more trouble with the “what, you mean I was supposed to pay taxes on that income?” problems). This smacks of pique more than principle and, even though I don’t profess to be fully aware of all the reasons why Daschle might be considered bad for the post he’s being offered, if this is the worst that can be said of him I still don’t rule him out. This guy was sent anthrax by the Bush Administration (did I say that? Oops) and considered enough of a threat by the Right to be specifically targeted – there must be something he was doing right. Obama may figure he’s a guy who can get things done, who can look the people he would be regulating in the eye and tell them there’s a new sheriff in town and make it stick (and people will be watching), and who would implement Obama’s policies because that’s who he would be working for. And the fact that he knew some of the players might even help him to rise in stature and above the characterization of his past as sordid, as Shakespeare put it in Prince Hal’s mouth:

So, when this loose behavior I throw off

And pay the debt I never promised,

By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;

And like bright metal on a sullen ground,

My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,

Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes

Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time when men think least I will.