A good man was brought low by a New York Times editorial. The echoes of the crackling thunder are still being heard after the lightening bolt that is the withdrawal of former Senator Tom Daschle from the nomination at Health and Human Services fades into the recesses of memory. This Secretary at HHS will be the most powerful one in the agency's history because Obama's campaign platform -- and Ted Kennedy's dying legacy in the United States Senate -- revolve around wholesale reform of the American Health Care system.
Tom Daschle, a former Senate Minority Leader had the chops to shepherd in that reform. Who will take his place? The person who gets the nomination has to have enormous political capital -- as Daschle, a leader in the Senate, did -- to navigate the narrows of the that august body (even with Ted Kennedy's aid and Obama's tacit backing). Remember what Hillary Clinton went up against in 1994 when she tried to reform the American health care system? One must have nerves of steel and a teflon coat to boot! Ancillary to that, the candidate must also be an intellectual combatant able to do battle against the slings and arrows of outrageous special interests (and must be immune to flippant charges of "socialism!").
Why not Howard Dean, former head of the DNC, credited with engineering the new Democrat majority? We cannot think of a single living human being that would be better suited for the job and the massive structural changes this job will bring than Howard Dean.
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