Is President Obama’s good government message running off the rails?

As much as the president may be trying hard to back up his words with actions, he seems to be falling short of the mark now that two Cabinet nominees have been caught playing fast and loose with their tax returns.

Latest victim: Tom Daschle, who today offered his contrition to the committee overseeing his nomination to be Health and Human Services Secretary: “I am deeply embarrassed and disappointed by the errors that required me to amend my tax returns. I apologize for the errors and profoundly regret that you have had to devote time to them.”

Frankly, Daschle is just a mess message-wise. Not only has he neglected to pay more taxes than most Americans make in a couple years’ time (at least $140,000), his appointment flies in the face of the president’s pledge to not let lobbyists run the government.

As the New York Times points out today, Tom Daschle has been quite a lucrative pseudo-lobbyist over the last few years. And he will, in fact, be running a department of government. One could suggest that if President Obama is serious about curtailing the influence of lobbyists, he ought to stop promoting them.

Ultimately, these personnel problems undermine the president’s credibility, which is essential to getting your message heard. For instance, doesn’t it seem a bit laughable for the president to call Wall Street bonuses “shameful” and then a few days later support a guy who, by the IRS’s understanding, was defrauding the government he’s been appointed to serve?

As every president finds, it’s tough to control the people around you, and you invariably pay for their mistakes. One of President Bush’s faults was an inability to cut people loose even after they became liabilities. He spent time defending them that could have been put to more productive uses.

President Obama is finding out how this works. To date, it hasn’t cost him much. But already a narrative is developing: Is this the change we asked for?

At some point, he’ll need to dump someone to prove that when he says he wants the highest caliber and most ethical people in government, he means it.