Tom Daschle

Thomas Andrew Daschle born December 9 1947 is an American politician and lobbyist who represented South Dakota in the United States Senate from 1987 to 2005 A member of the Democratic Party he led the Senate Democratic Caucus during the final ten years of his tenure during which time he served as Senate Minority Leader and Majority Leader After leaving the United States Air Force he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1978 and served four terms In 1986 he was elected to the US Senate becoming Minority Leader in 1995 and Majority Leader in 2001 becoming the highestranking elected official in South Dakota history In 2004 he was defeated for reelection in a close race Later he took a position as a policy advisor with a lobbying firm became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and coauthored a book advocating universal health care Daschle was an early supporter of Barack Obamas presidential candidacy and was nominated by Presidentelect Obama for the position of Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services after the 2008 election However Daschle withdrew his name on February 3 2009 amid a growing controversy over his failure to properly report and pay income taxes He is currently working for The Daschle Group a Public Policy Advisory of Baker Donelson a large law firm and lobbying group