[2009.02.05]Another two bite the dust 又有两名准部长落马

Lexington
列克星顿

Another two bite the dus
又有两名准部长落马

Feb 5th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Barack Obama is paying the price for his high-flown rhetoric
巴拉克•奥巴马在为他夸夸其谈的花言巧语付出代价。

 

The other day Tom Daschle looked certain to become one of the most powerful people in the Obama administration-simultaneously head of the mammoth Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the White House’s health-care tsar. Mr Daschle was to be in charge of delivering what Hillary Clinton singularly failed to deliver in 1993-94-a comprehensive reform of America’s expensive but ramshackle health-care system.
前一天，汤姆•达施勒(Tom Daschle)还十拿九稳地要跻身成为奥巴马政府中为数不多的位高权重的大员，届时，他将兼任卫生与公众服务部（Department of Health and Human Services, HHS）部长以及白宫卫生政策办公室主任，两个让人绞尽脑汁的活儿。上任后，达施勒将负责美国医疗卫生系统的全面改革，该体系尽管价格高昂，但却风雨飘摇，93到94年，希拉里•克林顿(Hillary Clinton)就有负众望，改革失败。

Mr Daschle’s career as a health reformer was killed this week by the revelation, on January 30th, that he had failed to pay $128,000 worth of taxes, mostly relating to a car and driver he had been given use of. At first the Washington establishment assumed that he would ride out the storm. Barack Obama declared his undying support. Mr Daschle pronounced himself “disappointed” by his behaviour. His former colleagues in the Senate competed to praise his public service (“My breast is clear and my support is strong”, declared Jay Rockefeller). Then on Tuesday morning Mr Daschle suddenly withdrew his name.
但1月30日媒体曝光他逃税达12.8万美元，其中多与其接受一辆轿车和司机有关，终于在本周结束了他医疗改革家生涯。起先，华盛顿大佬还认为在这场丑文风暴中，他能全身而退：巴拉克•奥巴马发表声明表示将全力支持达施勒。达施勒自己则表示，他为自己的行为”深感失望”。而他过去的参议院同事争先称誉其公共服务（”我头脑清醒地告诉你们，我坚决支持达施勒。”，这是杰伊•洛克菲勒的原话）。到了周二早上，达施勒却突然要求撤回提名。

Why the Tuesday surprise? Mr Daschle claims that he read an editorial in that morning’s New York Times that called for him to step aside, and decided that “I can’t pass health care if I’m too much of a distraction.” Others whispered that he would have been pushed if he had not decided to jump.
为什么是星期二惊诧呢？达施勒自己的说法是那天早上他读到《纽约时报》上的一篇专栏1，作者要他滚蛋，于是，他决定”如果我本人太具争议，那么我将难担医疗卫生体系的改革重任。”但也有传言说，就算他不自行放弃，还是会被踢开。

Earlier that very morning Nancy Killefer had withdrawn her candidacy to be the government’s first “chief performance officer” because she had failed to pay taxes on a domestic employee. A third nominee in a row with tax problems qualified as a “trend” under an unwritten journalistic law. It also raised issues of gender equality: could Mr Obama allow two men, Tim Geithner (now confirmed as treasury secretary) and Mr Daschle, to get away with tax evasion while allowing a woman to take the rap?

当日早些时候，南希•基利弗（Nancy Killefer）也因为未给一名保姆纳税而放弃任首任白宫首席绩效官(chief performance officer)的提名。新闻界有一个潜规则，”三人一趋”，现在，连续三个提名人遭遇”纳税门”已经可以说是一个”趋势”了。同时，它又引起了男女平等问题：在逃税问题上既然奥巴马能对蒂姆•盖特纳（Tim Geithner）（现任财长）和达施勒这两个男人法外施仁，他怎么能让一介女流一力当之呢？

Mr Daschle’s disappearance underlines one of the Obama administration’s biggest problems: the difficulty of managing the gap between the rhetoric of political campaigns and the reality of governing. All presidential candidates promise to reform Washington. Bill Clinton promised to create “the most ethical administration in history”. George Bush promised to put an end to the capital’s rancid partisan divisions. But Mr Obama raised the mantra of change to new rhetorical heights.
达施勒走了，但这件事却突显了奥巴马政府最大的问题之一：竞选时的旦旦信誓和执政之间难以逾越的鸿沟。所有的总统候选人都允诺要政府改革。比尔•克林顿(Bill Clinton)保证要建立一个”史上最有德的政府”，乔治•布什(George Bush)说要结束首都惹人生厌的党派分歧。但奥巴马竟能把变革这种陈词滥调的语言文字上升到一个新的高度。

Throughout two years of high-flown speechifying he promised to clean the Augean stables of Washington, close the revolving door between power and money and raise ethical standards. In his inaugural address, he announced the dawn of a new “era of responsibility”; on his first day in office he unveiled a package of tight ethical guidelines, though they didn’t last long.
过去两年间，奥巴马四处夸夸而谈，都说要清扫华盛顿这个”奥吉亚斯牛圈”2，封死权钱间的”旋转门”，提高精神文明水平。他在就职演说中宣布，一个崭新”负责的时代”迎来了黎明，上任第一天，他就公布了一系列严格的道德规范，但终究不过昙花一放。

The failure of no fewer than three nominees for high office to pay all their taxes has scrambled this message. Aren’t liberals supposed to believe that government is a good thing? And aren’t people who are being considered to run big departments supposed to be able to run their own financial affairs? (Mr Geithner, who had such trouble understanding the tax code, is now the man in charge of the Internal Revenue Service.) During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden declared that richer Americans had a patriotic duty to pay higher taxes; back in 1998 Mr Daschle opined that “tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.” Now Democratic insiders were giving the impression that they think that taxes are just for the little people.
但至少有三名被提名的高官有逃税行为，说的做的大相径庭，当然难以服众。自由主义者不是应该相信政府为善的吗？高管难道可以不懂得处理自己的财政问题吗？（对税法知之甚少的盖特纳现在掌管着美国国内税局,Internal revenue Service）。选战时，乔•拜登(Joe Biden)说，从爱国心上来看，富人有义务多交税；回首1998年时，达施勒还在说”税赋老千是在骗大众的钱，国税局必须严格执法。”但现在，民主党高层给人们的感觉却是他们认为，税收是小卒的事。

But Mr Daschle’s problems were deeper than the odd hundred thousand dollars in unpaid taxes. The man from South Dakota was the embodiment of the Washington that Mr Obama campaigned against-a former high-ranking politician who, on losing his Senate seat in 2004, immediately turned himself into an influence-peddler.

但比起其他问题，他那没缴清的十万美元税收实在是小巫见大巫了。这个南达科塔人恰是华盛顿势力的代表，这正是奥巴马要推翻的。他之前就是一个高级政客，2004年，他失掉参议员席位后，摇身一变即成权力掮客。

He earned more than $2m over the past two years as a “special policy adviser” at Alston & Bird, a law firm which conducts extensive lobbying for health-care companies. He earned $1m a year as a consultant to InterMedia Advisors, a private-equity firm founded by Leo Hindery, a big Democratic donor and the man who gave Mr Daschle the fatal “gift” of car and driver. He raked in $150,000 in 2008 from corporate speeches, many to health-care companies. He was also on the board of the Mayo Clinic, one of the most influential voices in the health-care debate.
过去两年间，他以”特别政策顾问”的身份供职于阿尔斯通&波德(Alston & Bird)法律事务所，这家公司为医疗卫生公司进行广泛的游说活动，在此期间，他获益200万。他也以顾问的身份在私募公司跨媒体顾问（InterMedia Advisors）年收入100万，值得一提的是，公司老板列奥•辛德雷（Leo Hindery）也是民主党一大捐赠人，不过也是他把那份轿车加司机的”致命礼包”送到达施勒手上的。2008年，他单靠公司演讲就把15万美元纳入囊中了，这些演讲多为医疗卫生公司进行。同时，他又是梅育医学院（Mayo Clinic）的董事，在医疗卫生研讨中，梅育医学院是一大权威。

The problem for Mr Obama is that, in terms of practical politics, many of Mr Daschle’s vices are also virtues. One reason why “Hillarycare” imploded was that Mrs Clinton failed to court the barons on Capitol Hill. Mr Daschle was ideally placed to sell his prospective reforms to his former colleagues in the Senate and the House. Another reason why it failed was that Mrs Clinton failed to pay enough attention to industry groups. Mr Daschle’s innumerable entanglements with those groups might have helped to assuage their worries. Mr Daschle was well-versed in the mind-boggling intricacies of health-care reform; his position as both White House insider and head of the department would also have increased the chances of producing a workable reform.
但就政治实践来看，达施勒的诸多恶性其实也是一大美德，这是奥巴马面临的一个问题。当年希拉里没跟国会山上的巨头献献殷勤，结果”希拉里医改”流产。把达施勒放在这个职位上，他就能让两院的前同事欣然接受他接下来的改革，这是再好不过的事情了。忽略了工业集团也是希拉里失败的原因。但达施勒和这些集团错综复杂的关系却有助于缓和他们的焦虑。而面对盘根错节的医疗卫生改革，达施勒却是手到擒来。他既是白宫高官，又是该部门头头，这样，改革成行的可能性也会提高。

Post-pedestal politics后偶像政治Mr Obama remains a forbiddingly powerful president, with a 64% approval rating and a Republican Party that is in a shambles. But he is paying a price for his inflated promises. He has already had to give himself a couple of get-out clauses, supporting Mr Geithner despite his problems with his taxes and nominating a former lobbyist for Raytheon to be number two in the Pentagon, one of the biggest-spending departments in the government, in defiance of his own new guidelines.
不管怎样，凭着64%的支持率，加之共和党内目前一片混乱，奥巴马总统仍然拥有强势。但对于他那些水中月般的承诺，他正在付出代价。支持身陷”纳税门”的盖特纳，违背自己新的执政纲领，提名雷神公司(Raytheon)一名前说客坐上五角大楼第二把交椅，执管政府开销最大的部门之一，为此，他已经不得不给自己开出几条免责条款。

 

But the loss of Mr Daschle, one of Mr Obama’s closest allies, many of whose former aides hold key positions in the White House, is the heaviest blow so far. And there will be others. The problem with putting yourself on a pedestal is that it is hard to get down from it and engage in the humdrum work of politics.
但达施勒作为奥巴马最亲密的盟友，他过去的不少助手都在白宫位居要职，他的离去对奥巴马是迄今为止最沉重的打击。但今后还会有更多打击。一旦别人把你当成了偶像，你就难以摆脱这个影子，投入到单调的政治活动中。
译注：
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/0 … uary+04+2009&st=nyt
2. The Augean Stable(s)直译”奥吉亚斯的牛圈”,源自古希腊神话中关于赫拉克勒斯的英雄传说. 奥吉亚斯（Augeas）是古希腊西部厄利斯(Elis)的国王。他有一个极大的牛圈，里面养了2000头年（一说3000匹马），30年来未清扫过，粪秽堆积如山，十分肮脏。因此，the Augean stable=very dirty place.

译者：irini         http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=17044&extra=page%3D1