All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

In four days, voters in Virginia and New Jersey will elect a governor. Soon afterwards, political analysts will seek to interpret the deeper meaning of the results, looking for clues about what may lay ahead for next year's mid-term elections.

Today on "Washington Unplugged," John Dickerson discussed the forthcoming contests with the executive director of the Republican Governors Association, Nick Ayers, and his Democratic counterpart, Nathan Daschle.

Ayers weighed in first.

"The reality is: this is a purple state," he said of Virginia, which went to President Obama in the 2008 election but had traditionally voted Republican. "It's a great indicator of what's going on at the national level. And while I don't think it reflects directly on the president, I do think this says a lot about his agenda. It's an agenda that [Republican candidate] Bob McDonnell has campaigned against, and one that [Democratic rival] Creigh Deeds has found tough to dance around."

Daschle disagreed, arguing that the Republicans have inherent advantages in this election.

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President Obama will meet with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle this morning in the Oval Office. He will then travel to Camp David for the weekend.

Here's the full schedule from the White House (all times Eastern):

11:00AM: President Obama meets with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

1:00PM: President Obama departs The White House en route Camp David

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CBS News' Political Consultant John Dickerson spoke to several of the key players in the 1993-1994 health care reform movement on Monday's installment of "Washington Unplugged."

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said he is not terribly worried that Congress' August recess will mean a "graveyard" for the pending legislation.

"It's always a risk," he said. Yet he noted that proponents of reform have momentum. "Three out of three committees in the House and one out of two committees in the Senate passed the legislation so they really had something going."

Daschle argued that Congress will have to "put the pieces back together" in September.

On the town hall "mob" scenes, Daschle said both parties' stand to lose. "This orchestrated effort is risky perhaps on both sides," he said.

Dickerson also spoke with Republican consultant Ed Gillespie, who, along with Dick Armey, helped derail the Clintons' reform effort.

"There are two opportunities for Republicans in this debate," Gillespie said. "One is to stop something bad from happening and two is to be part of something good happening."

He said that Republicans should not misconstrue dissention from the president's plan as satisfaction with the status quo.

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The Democratic-led Congress maintains it is working to create a health care reform package that can win Republican support, but if the bill is to be truly bipartisan, it should get in the range of 20 Republican votes, former Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle (a Democrat) and Bob Dole (a Republican) said Wednesday.

Along with former Republican Sen. Howard Baker, another former Senate Majority Leader, Daschle and Dole have created a set of recommendations for achieving bipartisan health care solutions. Speaking to CBS News political consultant John Dickerson on CBSNews.com's politics Web show "Washington Unplugged," the two men shared their idea of "bipartisanship."

"I'd like to have 20 Republicans" in the Senate vote on the health care reform package, Dole said.

Daschle concurred. "It has to be something where you have a double-digit number of Republicans and Democrats," he said.

The two men explained how they compromised on hot-button issues like a mandate for all Americans to have insurance and a government-sponsored, plan (or "public option"), to produce their report for the Bipartisan Policy Center.

"On the mandate, it was not an easy thing for me to give on," Dole said. "When we started, we decided we weren't going to let two or three things kill our effort."

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As if taking his case to the most powerful physicians group in the United States to push his controversial health care proposals wasn't a big enough headline, a New York Times report says President Obama has been working behind the scenes to protect doctors from malpractice. lawsuits.

"Tort reform is going to be on the table," Mr. Obama's initial nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told The Early Show Monday.

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In the wake of a New York Times report that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas was President Barack Obama's top choice to be secretary of health and human services, a White House source told CBS News that the Times article was overstated.

The source said that she was still "one of the top choices." Other reports have mentioned that Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., Gov. John Kitzhaber, D-Ore, and Mr. Obama's transition chief of staff John Podesta are also under consideration for the position.

Sebelius, 60, a Democratic governor in a deeply "red" state, has a reputation for working in a bipartisan fashion. It's a style that might appeal to an administration eager to avoid the legislative snares that brought down the Clinton team's healthcare reform efforts when it introduces its own plan to extend coverage to the uninsured.

As governor, Sebelius pushed to give healthcare to Kansas all children from birth to age five.

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On today's edition of CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged," North Dakota Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad told CBS News' Bob Schieffer that Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader who Tuesday withdrew from consideration to become secretary of Health And Human Services because of tax issues, would have been confirmed had he not decided to take himself out of consideration.

"I do [believe Daschle would have been confirmed] because most members, Republicans and Democrats know what Tom Daschle is like and members would have known the full story," Conrad said.

Conrad said Daschle believed the car and driver on which he owed taxes "was a gift, and because he got no 1099 [tax form] he had good reason to believe it was a gift."

"Beyond that, he took 100 percent of the responsibility for the car which in fact was not 100 percent his responsibility. His employer also used that car," he said.

"I have to tell you as a former tax commissioner the ultimate record will show that Tom Daschle has ultimately vastly overpaid what he owed," he continued.

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Based on his comments during a series of interviews last night, it seems as though President Obama’s harshest critic may just be President Obama.

“I think I messed up, I screwed up,” President Obama told CBS News’ Katie Couric. “In not recognizing the perception that even though this is a honest mistake,” he explained. (Read the transcript of the interview here.)

The president was referring to revelations hours earlier that his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, had withdrawn his nomination amid criticism of his initial failure to pay $140,000 in taxes.

During interviews with CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX and CNN, President Obama was asked about the cabinet staffing hiccup. The typically confident president repeatedly said that the appointment scandal was his responsibility and apologized over (and over) again.

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A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

TODAY: At 11am ET, President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will announce new rules for companies receiving funds from the financial bailout package, including a $500,000 cap on executives’ annual salaries.

“Firms that want to pay executives above the $500,000 threshold would have to compensate them with stock that could not be sold or liquidated until they pay back the government funds,” an administration official told the Associated Press’ Jim Kuhnhenn.

Other restrictions to be proposed include: “Long-term compensation restrictions even for companies that don't receive government assistance; Requiring top executives at financial institutions to hold stock for several years before they can cash out; Requiring nonbinding ‘say on pay’ resolutions — that is, giving shareholders more say on executive compensation; A Treasury-sponsored conference on a long-term overhaul of executive compensation.”

DASCHLE FALLOUT: “I screwed up in not recognizing the perception that even though this is an honest mistake, I believe, on Tom's part, that, you know, ordinary people are out there paying taxes every day and whether it's an intentional mistake or not, it was sending the wrong signal,” President Obama told CBS News’ Katie Couric yesterday, hours after Tom Daschle withdrew his name for consideration as Health and Human Services Secretary.

“He didn't offer excuses and I don't think there is an excuse and what became apparent was that not only could this be a distraction, but I don't want my administration to be sending a message that there are two sets of rules: one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes everyday.” (Click here to see the whole interview)

So what is the fallout from the Daschle episode – and the other folks Mr. Obama nominated whose problems were discovered after their nominations?

“[T]he problems called into question the thoroughness of Obama's vetting process as the Democrat's team pushed to put his Cabinet and White House team in place at a lightning-quick pace after last fall's election,” writes the Associated Press’ Liz Sidoti.

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On a day when not one, but two of his appointees went down in flames due to tax problems, President Barack Obama spoke with Katie Couric. Mr. Obama said he was "frustrated" with how the appointments had played out, but that it was important not to send a mixed message to Americans.

"I don't want my administration to be sending a message that there are two sets of rules: one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes everyday,'' Mr. Obama told Couric.

"I think that we're going to move forward, learn from our mistakes," he said.

Watch the full interview.