By Denise Ross

South Dakota’s own Tom Daschle has raised his profile lately, re-entering the healthcare debate as an advocate for reform. This after his well-known withdrawal as President Obama’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary amid controversy over unpaid income taxes.

Daschle’s promoting a bipartisan plan for healthcare reform that he’s cooked up with the likes of Bob Dole and other heavy hitters.

Here’s his Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

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By Denise Ross

Sadly, someone with the resources of Leo Hindery Jr. is going to blow his wad on a hapless and hopeless scheme to start charging fees to read news online. There’s just one problem: People won’t pay.

Former Colorado cable TV executive and investor Leo Hindery Jr. is one of three principals in Journalism Online LLC, a national venture announced Tuesday to help newspapers and magazines collect revenue for online content.

Online news leaks through a much looser seive than did music in the hey-day of Napster-ish file-sharing. (And we all know how well that is still working out for the old school music recording industry.) There is only one version of Brittany’s “Oops … I Did it Again,” while there are typically multiple versions of coverage of any given news event. Plus consuming news is arguably a much more transient experience than assembling a soundtrack for one’s life.

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By Denise Ross

The flurry of news and late night jokes about South Dakota’s own Tom Daschle came and went with quick intensity. While the flock that concerns itself with such things has flown to a new wire, the sting is still there for the Daschle family.

To wit, Nathan Daschle’s recent letter in the New York Times in response to a columnist who speculated that Tom Daschle’s car-and-driver tax snafu had something to do with him seeking to leave an inheritance:

I know firsthand what motivates Tom Daschle. He spent his life trying to protect our veterans, help American farmers and expand access to health care. Yes, he did it for his children — and Mr. Amidon’s and everyone else’s. I can’t think of a better legacy than that.

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By Denise Ross  

More from Politico, this a great look at Leo Hindery, the hefty Dem donor who provided Tom Daschle with the now infamous car and driver. He sounds like a colorful character, not necessarily well-loved by all.

(T)he news that Daschle did not pay taxes on the imputed income for the car and driver has put the spotlight on Hindery, a blustery, left-leaning mogul with an office in Chrysler Building, a table at the Four Seasons, and a passion for race cars, who has styled himself as organized labor’s Robert Rubin. …

His relationship with Daschle was just one part of an interlaced network of business and politics that never quite brought the former cable executive into the top ranks of Democratic power. …

His allies cast him as a committed liberal who suffers, if anything, from an excess of enthusiasm and a rare corporate executive who publicly sides with labor on issues ranging from trade to taxation. …

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From Denise Ross

I found it on Politico - Click here to read more.

UPDATE: Daschle said the New York Times made him do it. This from their editorial today:

Unfortunately, new facts have come to light … that call into question his suitability for the job. We believe that Mr. Daschle ought to step aside and let the president choose a less-blemished successor.

AND …

Only after he had been chosen to be the health secretary did Mr. Daschle tell the transition team about the unpaid taxes. He paid some $140,000 in back taxes and interest on Jan. 2 to settle several tax problems - and he acknowledges owing more.

AND …

It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws.

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By Denise Ross

Don’t look now, but the unnamed accountant getting lots of mention in news reports about Tom Daschle’s tax woes is a South Dakotan. (Who else, like me, foolishly assumed it would be a high-powered East Coast outfit?)

But the Washington Post reports this today:

As early as June 2008, Daschle asked his South Dakota-based accountant whether the free use of a Cadillac and driver was taxable under IRS regulations.

Unless Daschle goes to Judy at the temporary H&R Block office at Sears in the Rushmore Mall, Hoghouse Blog can confidently say we don’t share Daschle’s accountant. What about you?

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By Denise Ross

I’d heard stories about bad blood between Tom Daschle and Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT, over my years covering SD politics. Now that bit of chattering class lore appears to be at the root of Daschle’s nomination-threatening troubles.

As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus has the power to really tweak Daschle at this stage, and some Beltway insiders are saying the famously tempermental Montanan is doing just that.

Politico reports:

Top Democrats had been complaining privately that Baucus was letting Daschle “get beat up” by the GOP by stalling the vetting process.

“[Baucus] is flyspecking Daschle, really dragging this out,” said a Democratic senator close to Daschle. “He has shown himself to be as unreliable as ever.”

…

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By Denise Ross

ABC News’ Jake Tapper has a report out this evening about South Dakota’s own Tom Daschle paying more than $100k in back taxes as part of his nomination to Obama’s cabinent. It’s all over  the use of a friend’s car and driver.

Here’s the written report. (The broadcast version aired on Friday evening’s newscast.)

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.

AND …

“In June 2008, Sen. Daschle mentioned the use of the car to his personal accountant and asked him if there were any potential tax consequences,” the (Daschle)spokesperson said. “His accountant said that there could be tax consequences and said he was going to fix them as part of Daschle’s 2008 filing.”

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If you like talking budgets and numbers, you’ll like today’s news - even if Gov. Mike Rounds doesn’t.

Rounds hails worst numbers ever: In the first of his Friday press conferences of the 2009 legislative session, Rounds coughs up a few details in advance of his 2nd-try budget address coming next week.

• He expects the state to come up a bit more than $50M short before FY2009 closes out June 30.
• He and his staff are now projecting more than an $80M discrepancy between proposed spending and anticipated revenue in the FY2010 budget, which begins July 1 - and which lawmakers will vote on before the session ends several weeks from now.

Likewise, Dilges warns of cuts: Probably at about the same time, Rounds’ budget director Jason Dilges was promising cuts and “perhaps new revenue sources” to the Legislature’s appropriations committee.

“Perhaps”? Don’t be coy, Dilges. And when are “new revenue sources” not tax increases?

Sales taxes appear to have taken dive late in 2008: Also a factor is this report out of Mitchell, where the city’s sales tax collections remained robust until December, when they dropped 6.1% over December 2007.

The new numbers, released this week from the state Department of Revenue and Regulation, put a blemish on an otherwise positive calendar year of taxable sales growth.

BUT THEN, WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS?

Marilyn Wilson, the city of Mitchell’s finance officer, said Thursday she had not yet received all of the city’s sales tax receipts for December. Through November, the city’s collections were still up 3.5 percent over the previous year, which was higher than the city’s budget forecast of 1.5 percent.

Does that mean the final numbers aren’t in yet? (December tax receipts are due at the end of January, no?)

Meanwhile, Dem lawmakers keep promising a plan: And they say they’ve found about $90M. Don’t hold out on us! If you’ve found money, let’s see it before the programs get cut and the taxes get raised.

The plan, which reprioritizes state spending,

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By Denise Ross

In a screed that singles out the abortion issue, Focus on the Family is asking its supporters to ask their senators to oppose Tom Daschle’s confirmation as Health & Human Services secretary.

“Tom Daschle is a disaster appointment, the opposite of a national protector of health and human services,” pro-life blogger Jill Stanek told the Catholic News Agency. “Daschle ardently supports abortion … and he disdains abstinence education.

“The only reason Obama appointed Daschle was to assure Obama’s radical support of the abortion industry would be extended through HHS.”

Well, I don’t know if that’s the only reason. I seem to recall some discussion about overhauling America’s entire health care system.

When even John Thune isn’t conservative enough for James Dobson - at least on abortion, and when the GOP is asking itself whether hammering away on these social issues has left it weakened, how much success will Focus on the Family find with its call to arms?

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