The Wonk Room

Will Daschle Hold On To His White House Position?

Since his tax improprieties and industry ties have become the stuff of headlines, Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination for the Health and Human Services post.

The real question is whether Daschle will hold on to his appointment to head the White House Office on health reform. Remember that Obama also tapped tapped Daschle “to lead a new White House Office of Health Reform, a position that comes with a West Wing office and a voice in virtually all of the administration’s major domestic policy debates.”

Still, Daschle’s withdrawal from HHS certainly undermines the probability of imminent reform. Obama nominated Daschle for his intimate knowledge of Congressional procedure, his progressive policy solutions, familiarity with health care policy, and the lessons he learned fighting for health reform in 1993.

This isn’t to say that Daschle is somehow so uniquely suited for the job that the health care system will rot without him. Other leading contenders for the job, Govs. Howard Dean (D-VT) or Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS), could serve as powerful advocates for health care reform.