Incompetent, scandal prone administration has rocky start

Imagine the headlines if GWB had the same failures in vetting as BHO. Incompetent, scandal prone administration has rocky start. The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight. Tax Dodgers R Us.

The administration wants to have a the highest ethical standard ever. The problem is that he wants to appoint Democrats. The administration lost two more nominees and has questions over others. Fortunately, when he is in a pinch competent but wrong headed Republicans seem available to rescue him (La Hood and Gregg).

Daschle would get an understanding pass from me for violating an obscure and stupid part of the tax law except that he helped write it and insisted that the tax law should be "enforced to the letter" in a 1998 speech.

Part of the administration's problem stems from the fact that it acted as if lobbyists were evil corrupt people. You have to vet them more carefully to ensure that they make complete breaks and don't have conflicts of interest, but they are just people doing an essential job. They are experts in their field. The administration declaring that it would not use any of them was not in the interest of the American people and it is now having to face that fact. It was not change we can believe in, but cynical demagoguery designed to create the appearance of scandal in what turned out to be the cleanest administration in decades.

The President is a good man, but he allowed himself to be trapped into playing a dangerous game of poisoning the well. Unfortunately, it turned out that he had to drink from the well himself.