First, a note that some papers are saying the Chief Performance Officer-designee's withdrawal because she had nanny-tax issues (of under $1,000) was what forced Daschle to pull out, and that had she not done so Obama would have stuck with Daschle and he would have been confirmed.  This, apparently, because boys get to get away with things in D.C.

I kind of doubt that.  When I read Monday that Obama said he was "absolutely" behind Daschle's nomination, what I heard was "we're behind/with you in showing you to the door out."

Second, and more seriously, the NYT is predicting that the loss of Daschle will delay "by months" any move on health insurance.  I for one have long thought the promise of universal health care coverage was more of a carrot hanging from a string in front of a horse's nose than anything else - a promise which, for any number of reasonable reasons, will never be fulfilled.  It's real good to keep the troops in line, but once you give it to them, they go deaf to your commands.  So, I was not holding out any great hopes that could be dashed.

What he says, above, doesn't even make any sense.  His mistake is that ultimately it's important for the administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules?  No, I'm sorry, his mistake is that his nomination of these three people sent that message.  His further mistake, which compounded the impression of the old double standard, was in not being the one to withdraw the nominations.  And on top of all that, Geithner stands as proof that there is, indeed, a double standard.  Bob Gibbs thinks the difference between Geithner and Daschle is that Geithner made it through the process of confirmation and Daschle did not - as if Obama never had the choice to withdraw Geithner, that it was out of his hands.

The bar for taking responsibility and being accountable should not be set at the Bush level; we should stop using Bush as the inevitable comparison and start getting back to what we expect, what our standards are.  If we're going to keep the bar where it was, Obama appears to have risen above it quite handily; if you look at the totality of the situation with the nominees, it doesn't look quite so wonderful.

Geithner's "problems" were known before he ever had a hearing, and I never heard Obama explain why his continued support of Geithner did not constitute a double standard.  Daschle's issues were known by Obama before Obama was even sworn in, and I have to believe, based on the silence, that had it not become public, it would have been their little secret - for at least as long as secrets can be kept in DC.  Killefer I don't know as much about, but I believe her issue had been revealed to the administration, as well.

So, we had apologies from two American icons this week, and yet one of them is getting hailed as a beacon of responsibility and the other is being trashed as a hypocrite.  For some reason, when Obama says, "I screwed up," we are supposed to be overcome with wonderment; when Phelps utters similar words, we are supposed to be disgusted.

On the other hand, his apology still left me with some questions.  What exactly was the screw up?  Was it for choosing Daschle in the first place, or for his team failing to properly vet Daschle, or for knowing that Daschle had these problems and appointing him and then continuing to try to "sell" him even after the information about the taxes and the lobbying money came out?

If the news is correct, up until the day before yesterday, Obama and Biden were both on the phone trying to sell Daschle and work things out.  To me, this is the thing that is troubling.  If there had not been such a big backlash, apparently Obama was content with having him in the HHS position, knowing about the tax reporting problems and knowing that he earned millions from health related companies or lobbies.

I'm no big fan of Daschle, but this kind of responsibility might be refreshing from a three-year old ("It was a accident, daddy."), but from a President?  

After living for eight years with a president who could admit no mistakes, Obama's frank admission of "screwing up" is change for the good.