Progressives are so busy congratulating themselves on self-righteously making government off limits to anyone with questionable income tax returns that they have failed to consider what they have really done. In torpedoing the nomination of Tom Daschle, they have set back a far more important goal: the moral imperative to provide health care for all Americans.

The ongoing purge of purported tax cheats is on par with other contemporary disqualifications for high public office: infidelity and recreational drug use. Let me be very clear: I am not in any way condoning failing to pay income taxes, infidelity or recreational drug use. In my personal life, my children consider me something of a prude. It’s just that these things are irrelevant to the performance of high public office, and performance should be our primary criterion.

As Mike Madden writes in Salon today (Obama’s hopes Daschled):

Obama's West Wing, overflowing with loyal former Daschle aides, may have been blinded to [the way that the tax problem appeared to ordinary Americans]. Aides evidently never thought it could overshadow the guy they saw only as a dedicated progressive, a skillful leader and, above all else, a decent man…

In other words, they failed to see how, in American today, an error on one’s taxes cancel out a lifetime of public service and the promise for effective leadership on the healthcare issue. Indeed, now that Daschle has withdrawn, The New York Times has recognized that this incident has primarily benefited those who oppose comprehensive healthcare reform:

…“This is a very real setback for the administration because Daschle has unique qualifications,” said Drew E. Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which focuses on health policy…

William A. Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton who is now at the Brookings Institution, said Mr. Daschle combined political, policy and legislative experience. “I’ve been trying to wrack my brain to think of another person who could bring those three things together,” Mr. Galston said. “I’m not getting very far…”

Skeptics of Mr. Obama’s approach to health care were relieved. “We had some serious concern about Daschle’s desire to rush health care reform and push something through as quickly as possible,” said James P. Gelfand, senior manager of health policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce. “The administration could come up with a better consensus-builder.”

Should we simply accept some forms of income tax cheating? Of course not. Daschle should be assessed a very heavy fine for his violations, a fine large enough to serve as a deterrent to others. But whose interests do we serve when the first step in considering an individual for a critical government job is to examine his tax returns with a fine toothed comb? To the extent that making tax returns a priority has any effect at all, and it is not clear that it has any effect, it is only to make those few who aspire to higher public office pay every bit of their taxes. It does not enrich the United States government; it does not stop the average American from cheating on his taxes, and it deprives the American people of public servants capable of accomplishing important political aims.

Simply put, disqualifying every public servant who has a tax problem makes as much sense as disqualifying every neurosurgeon who has a tax problem. When you need brain surgery, you want the most qualified brain surgeon; what he did or did not claim on his last tax return has no bearing on his ability to perform delicate, lifesaving neurosurgery.

We have gleefully jumped into a trap set for us by Republicans. Republicans claim to be emphatic supporters of moral rectitude while hypocritically ignoring the rules they set for everyone else. In some ways, Democrats are worse. We don’t even claim moral rectitude as a priority, but we are the first to throw compatriots overboard when they cannot meet the standards ignored by Republican hypocrites.

That’s how we end up with leaders like the personally upright George W. Bush who created an unnecessary war, sent thousand of Americans to pointless deaths, destroyed the economy, and mangled the protections granted by the Constitution. Hey, but at least he didn’t cheat on his taxes, right?

Who do we serve when we deprive ourselves of the legislative skill, personal connections and progressive aims of Tom Daschle, instead of simply imposing a large financial penalty? We certainly don’t serve the American people, especially those who desperately need access to healthcare. We don’t serve the tens of thousands of people in the public and private sectors who are laboring strenuously to reform a broken healthcare system. And pretend as we might, we don’t reduce the incidence of cheating on income taxes, either.

Who benefited from the purge of Tom Daschle from government? Those opposed to the vital effort to reform healthcare and provide access for all. Who lost? We did.