RESTART? HOW ABOUT START?:

For Obama, nominees' exits take off some of the glow (Mimi Hall, Fredreka Schouten and John Fritze, 2/04/09, USA TODAY)

It was a disquieting day for a president who came into office with soaring approval ratings and a promise to have the most ethical administration in history.

First, he lost former Treasury official Nancy Killefer, the woman he'd tapped to root out waste as the government's first chief performance officer. Then, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle withdrew his appointment as Health and Human Services secretary. Obama had wanted Daschle to engineer an overhaul of the nation's health care system.

"It's a really rocky start," said Melanie Sloan, director of the liberal-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "He said this would be the most ethical administration ever, but to people outside the Beltway it looks like it was just words." [...]

n Congress and on cable talk shows Tuesday, questions about the new administration dominated the day. Among them: Should Obama's self-described mistakes be attributed to the usual growing pains of a new White House, or do they underscore a fundamental weakness that could have ramifications for future appointments and legislation at a critical time?

Obama moves to regain ground after 'self-induced injury': In five TV interviews, the new president admits errors and aims to take back control of the debate on an economic stimulus plan. (Peter Wallsten, February 4, 2009, LA Times)

In only his second week in office, Barack Obama is punching the restart button on his presidency. [...]

For the new president, winning passage of a stimulus plan has become only more difficult in recent weeks. A surprisingly unified GOP has taken control of the debate -- and embarrassed Democrats -- by highlighting controversial expenditures in the $819-billion bill passed last week by the Democratic-led House, such as funding for contraceptives and for new sod for the National Mall.

Those items were stripped from the bill, but their presence in the debate put the White House on the defensive in pushing legislation that, not long ago, many Democrats had thought could be delivered to the new president within days, if not hours, of his taking office Jan. 20.

At the same time, U.S. banks have deteriorated further, raising the prospects that Obama will have to press not only for the stimulus but also for a second unpopular bank bailout.

Then came the disclosures that three of Obama's highest-profile appointees had failed to pay some taxes, and that at least two senior officials were being granted exemptions from the new administration's strict ethics policy banning lobbyists from getting jobs.

Two of the tax-plagued appointees, including would-be Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle, a key Obama advisor, withdrew their names Tuesday, hoping to end what the president called a "distraction."

The third, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, remains in office. Whether Geithner's problems will fade over time or remain a focus of public attention is not yet clear.

The tax problems were damaging Obama's arguments in the stimulus debate -- and were potentially damaging to his ability to push for other difficult legislation, including the healthcare reforms that Daschle was to shepherd through Congress. The White House was left open to attacks such as the one from a top GOP leader, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, who said over the weekend that it was no wonder Democrats push for higher taxes "because, you know what, they don't pay them." [...]

A Gallup survey released Tuesday showed the challenge facing Obama, and suggested that GOP attacks have had an effect. Whereas three-quarters of Americans surveyed said they supported passage of some version of the Obama-backed stimulus plan, only 38% said they thought Congress should pass it "basically as Barack Obama has proposed it." About the same share, 37%, said it should be passed but only with "major changes."

Obama Says He Erred in Nominations (Anne E. Kornblut and Michael D. Shear, 2/04/09, Washington Post)

Daschle's withdrawal came as a jolt to the administration, serving as a rebuke to Obama officials who had privately and publicly brushed aside the idea that personal tax issues would reach a boiling point. Senior officials had insisted that the public was too concerned with the ongoing economic collapse to fixate on the foibles of the people being marshaled to try to set the nation back on course. [...]

Before Daschle's decision was announced, a growing number of Senate Republicans began speaking out against his nomination. After holding back criticism for almost four days, some Republicans broke their silence after learning that Killefer was withdrawing her nomination because of what appeared to be a much smaller tax dispute.

"He didn't really have a choice," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said, after calling for Daschle to step aside earlier in the day.

Cornyn, chairman of the GOP campaign committee, said the controversy had become "Geithner on steroids," referring to the $43,000 in back taxes new Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner paid before his confirmation vote.

The situation also raised questions about how thoroughly Obama transition officials had vetted their Cabinet nominees.

Officials said yesterday that myriad tax questions had been posed to Daschle, Killefer and Geithner. But the problems were largely dismissed as less important than the nominees' qualifications for the major tasks they were expected to confront in office, the officials said.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 4, 2009 7:33 AM