4.  Remember Tom Daschle? Turns Out He Never Left

Several House Democrats who ardently back a government-run public health insurance policy as a component of healthcare reform are raising a suspicious eye at Tom Daschle's two-hat routine, both as an informal advisor to Obama and a formal advisor to companies like UnitedHealth. Daschle supports the non-profit cooperative model as a more politically palatable alternative to the public option—a plan that happens to also be more palatable to many of his clients. (The White House has recently indicated that it may support this alternative as well.) Daschle, naturally, says his dual roles do not muddy his views or advice to either party, while lawmakers like Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat, have suggested otherwise. Because he is not an official member of the administration, Daschle is not subject to the restrictions on lobbyists working for the White House that Obama put in place when he took office.

Read original story in The New York Times | Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009