After days of fierce public outcry and a major political storm for the new administration, former Sen. Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name from nomination for the post of Health and Human Services secretary.

In a brief announcement from the White House, Daschle said he withdrew his name because he didn't want to be a further distraction from the president's agenda.

The withdrawal was the only reasonable outcome from the controversy that has consumed and tarnished Daschle's nomination since late last week.

Even though Daschle filed amended returns for 2005-07 to report $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest, his nomination was unsalvageable. The amended returns reflected additional income for consulting work, the use of a car service and tax deductions for charitable contributions.

Daschle has had a distinguished career in Washington and has done a fine job for South Dakota over the past 26 years. But, finally, a top lawmaker failing to pay taxes was more than the public could, or should be expected, to stomach.

It's too bad because we knew Daschle was prepping himself for a cabinet position when he was instrumental in the Obama campaign. Besides that, Daschle's interest and expertise in the health care arena was unquestionable.

But he was the second candidate with the same problem - failure to pay back taxes.

In November, Daschle was named as Obama's pick for Health and Human Services. You would have been hard pressed to find anyone in South Dakota to criticize the pick. It was a positive for South Dakota and more importantly national health care policy - something Daschle has developed a keen interest in.

And now this.

Maybe Daschle's nomination would have stood the test had Geithner not set the stage for a political showdown. Maybe, but in reality, there's no excuse for Daschle's failure to pay taxes.

The White House said people make mistakes and it "absolutely" supported Daschle for the top health job. But too many people don't have the leisure Washington insiders seem to enjoy to skate through tax crisis with a simple "I'm sorry." Those people let the administration know how they felt.

The Daschle nomination was a distraction from the larger agenda over the past week and, if he had won the nomination, the distraction would have continued.

After his self-induced tax fiasco, Daschle couldn't serve the administration nor the country in the top health job. We're sorry to see him go, but we're not surprised.