Daschle Out

I'm so glad that I never mentioned him in this dratted manuscript I'm struggling with, about health care because I don't have to edit it out. Sometimes writing is like trying to dance the cha cha cha with an octopus with no rhythm. And where do you put all the arms?

In any case, Atrios says that this opinion piece was what made him withdraw from the game (Daschle, not the octopus).

The question of not paying taxes is an interesting one. I'd like someone to do a study about the average amount of non-payment among the class of people who are otherwise likely to be drawn into high-level political posts. Would we find that average higher or lower than the national average?

What I am driving at is the question whether we could take down almost any candidate on that level by a very careful analysis of their tax payments. Not sure about the answer to that. Of greater concern are the industry ties that Daschle had. Such ties are very common, but they can be bad when you are in a position to either help a friend or to stomp on a friend, hard.