Will there be any surprises at today's Senate Finance Committee hearing where Tom Daschle will field questions about his failure to pay taxes? I don't know.  Daschle sent a letter to Chariman Max Baucus and ranking member Charles Grassley yesterday apologizing for his "unintentional mistakes," and it appears enough of the establishment has rallied around him to save his nomination.

Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal puts the boot in, as it should:

As a legal tax matter, this isn't even a close call. Mr. Daschle says he used the car service about 80% for personal use, and 20% for business. But his spokeswoman says it only dawned on the Senator last June that this might be taxable income. Mr. Daschle's excuse? According to a Journal report Friday, "he told committee staff he had grown used to having a car and driver as majority leader and did not think to report the perk on his taxes, according to staff members." How's that for a Leona Helmsley moment: Doesn't everyone have a car and chauffeur, dear?

As if the public needed another reason to support their belief that Washington is a clubby swamp of influence peddling, here comes the former Majority Leader of the United States Senate who's been making a bloody fortune ($5 million in 4 years) and living "a lavish lifestyle by dint of his name, connections and knowledge of the town's inner workings" but not paying taxes on his personal limo.

This was the "culture" that President Obama was supposed to change. Instead, he's staffing his administration with Washington insiders like Daschle.  We know the ending to this story. It's been told many times before, most recently by John McCain during the campaign when he lamented the transformation of the Republican party after taking power in 1994 by saying, "we came to change Washington, but instead Washington changed us."