Obama: 'I Screwed Up'

Obama told CBS he is not frustrated in his efforts to change Washington. "I never thought it was easy," he said. "Change is hard. We're going to make some mistakes. I'm going to screw up sometimes." By Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP

For Obama, nominees' exits take off some of the glow
By Mimi Hall, Fredreka Schouten and John Fritze,
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after he stood before the nation and pledged "a new era of responsibility," President Obama confronted the biggest crisis of his young presidency Tuesday as two of his key nominees withdrew over their failure to pay their taxes.

"I screwed up," Obama told NBC News in one of five network interviews he did Tuesday as questions swirled about his administration's vetting of nominees and his judgment. "Part of the era of responsibility is not never making mistakes, it's owning up to them."

It was a disquieting day for a president who came into office with soaring approval ratings and a promise to have the most ethical administration in history.

First, he lost former Treasury official Nancy Killefer, the woman he'd tapped to root out waste as the government's first chief performance officer. Then, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle withdrew his appointment as Health and Human Services secretary. Obama had wanted Daschle to engineer an overhaul of the nation's health care system.

"It's a really rocky start," said Melanie Sloan, director of the liberal-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "He said this would be the most ethical administration ever, but to people outside the Beltway it looks like it was just words."

Daschle dropped out after revelations that he failed to pay $128,203 in taxes for consulting income and several years' use of a car and driver provided to him by a wealthy Democratic contributor after Daschle lost his Senate re-election bid in 2004. Daschle filed amended tax returns last month and paid the taxes plus $11,964 in interest.

Killefer withdrew over her failure to pay taxes for household help and a $946 tax lien that was placed on her home in an upscale Washington neighborhood in 2005.

For Obama, the departures of Daschle and Killefer became a distraction on a day when he had planned to use the TV interviews to promote the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus package he is trying to get through Congress. Also overshadowed was Obama's latest effort to reach out to Republicans, this time by nominating Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., as Commerce secretary.

In Congress and on cable talk shows Tuesday, questions about the new administration dominated the day. Among them: Should Obama's self-described mistakes be attributed to the usual growing pains of a new White House, or do they underscore a fundamental weakness that could have ramifications for future appointments and legislation at a critical time?

"Right now, he looks very much on the defensive," said Merle Black, an Emory University political scientist. "Anytime you have two people quit on the same day over tax problems it's a bad day. But the presidency is four years."

'Can't afford glitches'

In a series of mea culpas Tuesday, Obama said he was concerned about how Americans would view what went on with Daschle's nomination.

"I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics," he told CNN. "I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards, one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes."

On ABC, he called the tax errors "honest mistakes" but said he "can't afford glitches" such as those if he is to get his economic stimulus package through Congress.

They weren't the president's first problems with nominees. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination to be Commerce secretary last month because of an investigation into possible connections between contributions to his political committees and state contract awards.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's confirmation was delayed last month amid questions about why he initially failed to pay more than $34,000 in self-employment taxes.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declined to say Tuesday how — or even whether — the vetting process had gone wrong. "I'm not going to spend a lot of time looking in the rear-view mirror," Gibbs said.

Transition analysts didn't hold back. Some questioned Obama's judgment.

"At first, I thought this was a vetting problem, but now I think it's hubris — that they somehow think they're so powerful and so popular that the normal rules don't apply," said Paul Light, an expert on presidential transitions and a professor at New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Others said such problems were inevitable if Obama is going to look to old Washington hands for help.

Craig Holman, of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said Obama deserves credit for trying to set new standards for ethics in Washington. "But as he taps into appointees that have been spinning through the revolving door in Washington," Holman said, "he's going to find people who have been part of the business-as-usual culture."

Obama also has faced questions about why he's made an exception to his new lobbying rules by naming former Raytheon top lobbyist William Lynn to serve as deputy Defense secretary.

The president said an exception had to be made at the Pentagon because Lynn was the right person for the job. "Now, what I said in appointing Mr. Lynn was that this, along with maybe a handful, maybe three or four positions, may end up being so unique that we are going to make an exception," Obama said on CBS Tuesday evening.

Obama and others in the administration said Geithner's tax problem should be excused because he was the best person for the job at a critical time for the economy — and he was confirmed by the Senate.

Quick action lauded by some

With respect to Daschle and Killefer, some gave Obama credit for moving on quickly.

"Obama has done something smart here," said Matthew Dickinson, a political science professor at Middlebury College. "He hasn't let them dangle in the wind. … Every president dating back to Carter has lost a nominee or two. He's reacted the way you have to react as president."

Whether this has a long-term effect depends on "the performance going forward and the other nominees that come on board," Black said.

The latest troubles left the White House and Capitol Hill in turmoil Tuesday.

Senators who would have had to vote on his confirmation expressed remorse that a good man had fallen victim to tax errors.

"It was with regret but with respect for his decision that I learned of Sen. Daschle's request to withdraw his name," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which planned a hearing on the nomination next week.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he was sorry Daschle withdrew. "When the smoke clears and the frenzy has ended, no one will believe that this unwitting mistake should have erased 30 years of selfless public service and remarkable legislative skill and expertise on health care," he said.

Others complained not only about Daschle's tax problem but his work with a lobbying firm.

In addition to the taxes issue, Daschle had faced questions about his relationship with an industry he was asked to reform. He is not a registered lobbyist but has earned more than $2 million as a policy adviser on health care, climate change and other issues at a Washington law firm. He also earned nearly $500,000 for speeches before groups that included insurers and other health care organizations.

"I don't know how you get paid $2 million by a lobbying firm and not call yourself a lobbyist," said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. "That just seems disingenuous to me, and I don't think passes the smell test. So I personally think that Senator Daschle, you know, was going to face some tough questions and … I think he saved the president from being embarrassed next week in a public hearing."

Obama, in the ABC interview, called Daschle's nomination a "self-induced injury."

Long day at the White House

Shortly after news of Daschle's withdrawal broke, Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid a surprise visit to a local school.

"We wanted to get out of the White House," Obama told delighted second-graders at Capital City Public Charter School.

The president woke up Tuesday to editorials in The New York Times and four major regional news papers calling on Daschle to step aside. By the time breakfast was over, the cable TV news shows were featuring commentators who questioned Obama's commitment to ethics reform.

By mid-morning, a YouTube link to a grainy 1986 Daschle campaign commercial was circulating on Capitol Hill. It showed Daschle, then a House member running for the Senate, driving through Washington, D.C., in a rusted 1971 Pontiac.

"After 15 years and 238,000 miles, Tom Daschle still drives his old car to work every day," the narrator intoned. "Maybe he's sentimental or just cheap. Whatever the case, isn't it too bad that the rest of Washington doesn't understand that a penny saved is a penny earned?"

At a testy mid-day briefing for the news media, held as construction crews worked to dismantle the Inauguration Day parade viewing stand out front on Pennsylvania Avenue, Gibbs said Obama never thought change would come overnight.

"I think the president would say to you that he didn't believe that we were going to change the way Washington has worked the past three decades in the first two weeks of this administration," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said no one in the White House asked Daschle or Killefer to step down. In a letter to Obama, Killefer wrote that she had "come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue … could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay" that would harm efforts to revive the sinking economy.

She didn't elaborate.

Gibbs said Daschle called and spoke with Obama about his decision to withdraw.

"We had a conversation and obviously that conversation's private, but, it's frustrating for me and it's something I take responsibility for," Obama told CBS. "Tom, I think, is an outstanding individual. I am absolutely convinced he would've been the best person to help shepherd through what's going to be a very difficult process to get health care for American families."

Obama has said he plans an overhaul that would cut health care costs by $2,500 a year for the average family and would require health care coverage for all children.

Obama told CBS he is not frustrated in his efforts to change Washington. "I never thought it was easy," he said. "Change is hard. … We're going to make some mistakes. I'm going to screw up sometimes."

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