Daschle to lobby for Taiwan

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who started a public policy practice at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz last year, said he will register with the federal government as a lobbyist for the first time in his career.Daschle will work on behalf of Taiwan and plans to disclose the client later this month to the U.S. Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, he told The National Law Journal on Monday. Baker Donelson is the third law firm Daschle has worked with since leaving the Senate in 2005. He previously worked at DLA Piper and Alston & Bird, within their main law firm businesses. His practice at Baker Donelson, called The Daschle Group, is a wholly owned subsidiary that specializes in giving strategic advice. [Katelyn Polantz, Legal Times]

Touting trade with Taiwan's economic and cultural contender, Daschle's former rival in the US Senate, now Ambassador to China, Max Baucus, just returned to the US speaking in Helena at the Montana Chamber of Commerce’s Manufacturing and International Trade Day banquet.

Baucus threw Daschle under the bus during a pre-confirmation quarrel in 2009. President Obama's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, Daschle was widely expected to push Congress toward a Medicaid-for-all health care plan as Big Pharma-backed Baucus worked to pass the Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare. Daschle withdrew from nomination.