In Daschle's DC, Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears

Under Obama, influence peddling may be on the way out
Posted Feb 4, 2009 3:15 PM CST
In Daschle's DC, Money Doesn't Talk, It Swears
In this April 22, 2008 file photo, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, left, followed by current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., right, smiles on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File )

It’s not your parents’ Washington anymore. DC used to be a cultural and social backwater, but no longer, writes Norman Ornstein for the New Republic. The “sheer amount of money sloshing around” the capital destroyed Tom Daschle's bid to head HHS nominee; he got "caught up in a system that is becoming more difficult to keep on the straight and narrow.”

Daschle followed a well-worn path from apparently selfless public service to influence-trading riches, notes the Washington Post. If Ornstein’s old, poor Washington was DC 1.0, and rich, corrupt Washington was version 2.0, then Daschle’s demise may signal the transition to honest 3.0. “In some ways, this is a warning signal to the city that the rules are changing,” says a good-government advocate.
(More Tom Daschle stories.)

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