You know the ethical problems are serious when the cheerleader for your own team says it is time to go.  Tom Daschle has tax problems, and worked for the health industry after leaving the Senate – all of which are good reasons why many independents and Republicans believe he ought not become Secretary of Health & Human Services.  Now the New York Times is editorializing that Daschle’s problems are serious enough so that he should not become Secretary of HHS.

I rarely agree with much in the NYT, but for once they have actually said the honest thing without too much prodding.  The problem for the Obama administration is that the Hope and Change (TM) promised is proving to be the same old corrupt politics as usual.  Richardson, Geithner, Holder, Daschle – if this is the best the Democrats can put forward, it should make some of the people who have been constant critics of the Bush administration embarassed.  Because it would seem to indicate one of two things, both of which are quite unsavory:

(1)  Most politicians are corrupted by the process at this level.  To put it crudely, politicians need to be changed frequently for the same reason baby’s diapers need to be changed frequently. If this is true, then there really isn’t much difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, except for the special interest groups buying and selling the congressmen.

(2)  If there are a fair number of reasonably honest politicans in government, why hasn’t the Obama team done a better job of selecting them for his cabinet?  This group seems to contain a lot of high profile problems.  If there are plenty of honest politicians, and Obama hasn’t chosen them, it seems to indicate that he really is not ready for the Oval Office, and he is being guided by less than scrupulous people.  Say – wasn’t that the popular charge about Vice President Cheney and Karl Rove for the past eight years?  Oh – see the last sentence of point (1) above.

This transition, despite all the cheer leading from the media, and all the enthusiasm from the public, has gotten off to a rough start which makes the previous Bush administration look like a well-oiled machine.  On second thought, perhaps references to ‘machine’ and the Obama administration aren’t especially helpful.

Seriously, the President needs to take charge, and that includes telling some of his supporters that they will be disappointed, because he will appoint competent people, regardless of party, and he will hold them accountable.  He won’t be selecting party cronies and personal pals.  There is a precident for that:  Fiorello Laguardia, who ran for Mayor of New York, won, and then thanked everyone who voted for him, and told them he would show his ingratitude by not appointing them to city offices. He tried to get the best people for the jobs.  He was not always successful, but he seems to have had the right idea.