What will the Democratic response to Daschle's nomination say about them?

You'd think that President Obama would be a mite bit ticked that Senator Daschle didn't inform him of possible tax violations before he accepted the nomination. And what's with Daschle's accountant supposedly taking six months to inform Daschle that he needed to have paid taxes on the car and driver? Can't a couple earning as much as the Daschles were earning afford an accountant who can figure out that gifts in kind need to be taxed?

Tom Maguire has his own theory about that delay in the accountant's analysis.

As to the idea that it took his accountant six months to resolve these questions, please - is this the sort of glacial progress we can expect as Daschle oversees the transformation of the US health care system? For any Democrats out there not familiar with the process by which the rest of us pay our taxes, most returns are filed by April 15; summertime is the slow season and one would hope that as important a person as Tom Daschle could have gotten an answer promptly, if he had so desired. In fact, Daschle only got his answer after he had been tapped for a post requiring Senate confirmation; if Daschle had gotten the nod for a consigliere spot in the White House, I have no doubt his accountant would still be researching this

As Maguire suggests an out for the Democrats. They can turn him down to be Secretary of HHS and he can just be happy being the Health Czar since Obama already said he'd have that position to oversee the White House health care office.

The Wall Street Journal is correct when it says that Daschle's tax avoidance is going to tell us a lot about the Senate Democrats.

As a legal tax matter, this isn't even a close call. Mr. Daschle says he used the car service about 80% for personal use, and 20% for business. But his spokeswoman says it only dawned on the Senator last June that this might be taxable income. Mr. Daschle's excuse? According to a Journal report Friday, "he told committee staff he had grown used to having a car and driver as majority leader and did not think to report the perk on his taxes, according to staff members." How's that for a Leona Helmsley moment: Doesn't everyone have a car and chauffeur, dear?

The Senate Finance Committee is also reviewing whether certain "travel and entertainment services" provided to Mr. Daschle and his wife Linda, an aviation lobbyist, should also be reported as income. The Washington Post reports that Mr. Daschle has earned more than $5 million over the past two years, including $220,000 from the health-care industry he's been nominated to regulate. Capitalism is wonderful, but at the very least Mr. Daschle's record strips the veneer from President Obama's moralizing that lobbying and special interest pleading are the root of all evil in Washington. In appointing Mr. Daschle, Mr. Obama is showing that lobbying is fine as long as it is done by people who agree with him.

Some Democrats said on the weekend that Mr. Daschle deserves to be confirmed because they "know" he is "honest." But that isn't the standard Mr. Daschle set for GOP appointees who had no ethical taint. In 2001, he established a new, 60-vote confirmation standard for Eugene Scalia to be Labor Department Solicitor, though Mr. Scalia had been approved in committee and would have won on the Senate floor. He also filibustered Miguel Estrada, a judicial nominee of wide renown, on the trivial grounds that the Bush Administration wouldn't release internal memos when Mr. Estrada had worked as a Justice Department staff lawyer.

We'll be watching in particular to see how Democrats Max Baucus and Kent Conrad handle the Daschle tax mess. Finance Chairman Baucus gave a pass to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, albeit for a lesser offense, and Mr. Conrad also voted to confirm Mr. Geithner though not without saying he wouldn't have done so in "normal" times. We assume by "normal" he doesn't mean when nominees are Republican. If nothing else, a vote to confirm Mr. Daschle will expose the insincerity of Democratic tax populism.

Perhaps Tom Daschle could have a chat with Vice President Joe Biden who lectured us that paying taxes is patriotic. And the Democrats can have a quiet talk with their own consciences and see what their standard is for nominees. If they confirm him, they're guaranteeing that there will be an ethical cloud over Daschle's career at HHS.