Dems Speak Up Daschle, GOP Senators Mum

Tom Daschle cemented his support with Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee Monday, but Republicans leaving a 75-minute meeting with the tax-challenged Health and Human Services nominee refused to say whether he’d have their vote. 

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said senators had had a “very, very good discussion” with Daschle, and that the conversation had been “totally bipartisan, not at all acrimonious.” Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said there was at least some Republican support for Daschle in the room, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he was confident Daschle will be confirmed. 

Republicans leaving the session refused to discuss Daschle with the reporters waiting outside. Still, as of press time, not a single Republican on the Finance Committee had announced outright opposition to Daschle’s nomination. 

Democrats have privately grumbled that Baucus – who has had a long-running feud with Daschle – was slow-rolling the confirmation process and had thereby made Republican attacks on the nominee possible. 

Democratic insiders said Baucus was the focus of an intense lobbying effort over the last week to 10 days, with senior White House appealing to Democratic members of the Finance Committee to intercede on Daschle's behalf with Baucus. One source said that it was “not at all clear” at one point whether Baucus would support the nomination, but that he has “come around.” 

On Monday night, Baucus declared Daschle “eminently qualified” and said he would support him. Baucus has set a Feb. 10 Finance Committee hearing on Daschle's nomination, with a vote to come soon thereafter. 

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Daschle apologized to Obama, his former Senate colleagues and the American people for what he called a “completely inadvertent” mistake. “I would hope that my mistake could be viewed in the context of 30 years of public service,” he said. 

The former Senate majority leader seemed a lock for confirmation when Obama picked him for the HHS job in December. But Daschle’s chances took a blow when news broke Friday that he’d had to pay more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest, mainly stemming from a private car service provided to him by a major Democratic donor for three years after he left the Senate. 

Republicans seized on the report, noting that Daschle was the second Obama Cabinet nominee – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was the first – to have tax problems. 

But Obama said Monday that he was “absolutely” still committed to Daschle’s nomination, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs echoed the point during his press briefing. 

"Nobody's perfect. It was a serious mistake, one that he caught and remedied," Gibbs said. "We still think he's the best person to do health care reform and shepherd a very complicated process through Congress to achieve savings and cut costs for the American people." 

Senate GOP leaders and rank-and-file members have been cautious in commenting on the Daschle flap so far. While Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) raised questions about the Obama team’s vetting process Sunday, he told reporters Monday that he wasn’t going to discuss the matter further.
GOP aides said that Republicans were waiting to see if any Democrats were going to break with Obama over Daschle’s nomination — or if further negative news surfaces on the former majority leader — before deciding what to do. 

“Daschle has a lot of friends on this side of the aisle,” said a senior GOP aide, referring to Daschle’s 18 years of Senate service. “There are reservoirs of good will for him. So we are just seeing how this shakes out.”

Carrie Budoff Brown and Manu Raju contribued to this story.