DASCHLE, OTHERS SHOW OBAMA NEEDS TO STEP UP HIS GAME

So much for the well-oiled Obama machine.

On Tuesday, two weeks into his administration, President Barack Obama accepted former Sen. Thomas A. Daschle's withdrawal as his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services and former management consultant Nancy Killefer's withdrawal as his nominee for a top position in the Office of Management and Budget.

Both nominees had tax problems. For those keeping score at home, that makes two tax-troubled appointees out before confirmation hearings and one _ Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner _ confirmed despite his problems with back taxes. And then there's New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who withdrew as commerce secretary designee in early January because of continuing investigations into a pay-to-play scheme in New Mexico.

Oh, let's not forget William J. Lynn II, the former Raytheon Corp. lobbyist named as a deputy defense secretary, and William V. Corr, an anti-tobacco lobbyist named as deputy HHS secretary. Both were named by a president who pledged during his campaign that "lobbyists will not find work at my White House."

During the campaign, David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, enforced a relentless discipline on his organization. But Plouffe chose not to join the administration, and it's starting to show. These kinds of problems distract from far more serious ones and give the impression that for all of Obama's talk of change, it's business as usual in Washington.

Ultimately, the buck stops on the president's desk. Obama's vetting team uncovered the tax problems of Geithner and Daschle, and the president proceeded anyway. He argued that the economic expertise of Geithner and his respect on Wall Street made the former president of the New York Fed too valuable to sacrifice over the question of $38,000 in unpaid taxes. The Senate eventually agreed and confirmed him.

Similarly, until Tuesday morning, Obama continued to insist that Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota who has a passionate interest in health care reform, should be confirmed despite revelations that he had hadn't paid $140,000 in back taxes until he was deep into the vetting process. Mr. Daschle blamed the problem on his accountant.

Daschle might have skated through like Geithner had Killefer's tax problems not emerged. That the woman he'd appointed as White House performance officer _ in effect, the person in charge of scrutinizing federal spending _ had overlooked her own tax obligations was one asterisk too many.

In recent months, the American people have come to realize how badly they've been treated by an economic system that has favored the wealthy and well-connected. One of the ways they learned it was by listening to Candidate Obama last fall, when he declared that "our leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play."

When they read that Daschle, after losing his bid for reelection to the Senate in 2004, strolled into a million-dollar-a-year job as a rainmaker for a investment firm, they figure it's business as usual. Everyone in Washington does it.

But when he forgets to pay $140,000 in taxes _ $128,000 of it on the car and driver that the firm provided for him _ they start to do the math. If he's paying a marginal tax rate of 31 percent, the value of the car-and-driver perk over four years is $413,000. Most Americans don't live in that world, a world of limos and corporate jets and $35,000 commodes and $1,400 wastepaper baskets. They live in a world where people gripe about taxes and then pay them.

In this climate of economic crisis, $128,000 in unpaid taxes on your car and driver is not a survivable wound. Obama, the candidate, would have known that. Obama, the president, missed the warning sign. He needs to step up his game.

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The following editorial appeared in the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Feb. 4:

TAX PROBLEM TRIPS UP YET ANOTHER NOMINEE

The withdrawal of the candidacy of Tom Daschle for a Cabinet position is an embarrassing turn of events for an administration that came to Washington pledging to change the culture of the capital and impose a new standard of responsibility. The tax problems of Daschle and other Obama nominees amount to a self-inflicted wound in the new administration and tarnish President Barack Obama's much-hyped vetting program for prominent appointees. He must do better.

Daschle made the right call in deciding to step down.