Leo Hindery, Up the Creek Without a Patron

What has been a brutal day for former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle has also been a tough one for Leo Hindery.

After spending years cultivating powerful politicians in Washington and paying public relations flaks to float his name as a possible Cabinet contender, Hindery, the media mogul and longtime Democratic donor, is up the old creek without a paddle.

Well, as far as getting a job in the Obama administration goes.

With Daschle now out of the picture, Hindery may not have anywhere else in the Obama world to hitch his wagon.

Since Daschle forgot to pay taxes on a car and driver provided by Hindery - a perk that came with a $1 million-a-year salary at one of Hindery's private investment firms - he was forced to withdraw as President Obama's nominee to be health and human services secretary.

And as Politico reports, Daschle was Hindery's big hope for getting a job in the Obama administration.

Poor Hindery. Even the very people he hired to help make a name for himself don't want to be associated with him. Just look at the Web site of Global Strategy Group, the big-time New York public relations and polling firm that Hindery hired.

The firm did - that's past tense - have a testimonial on its Web site from Hindery singing Global's praises for the work it did in generating buzz about him. We found this on the site's cached "testimonials" page, which you should be able to view here or here:

Leo Hindery
Managing Partner, InterMedia Partners
Former CEO of AT&T Broadband and the YES (Yankees Entertainment & Sports) Network
"Jon Silvan and his associates have built a firm that is highly motivated, multi-faceted and full-service - and that always delivers. I am continually impressed by Global's ability to take on any and every new assignment I throw at them, whether it is managing a political public relations initiative, helping affect public policy debates in Washington, or promoting the launch of a new cable channel or media business. There is simply no one better at what they do."

The plug from Hindery, however, is no longer featured in the testimonials section, as you can see here. No more Mr. Hindery. (We're awaiting a call back a spokesman at Global with an explanation on when and why Hindrey's testimonial was taken down.)

As far as anyone knows, Hindery is just collateral damage in the Obama administration's Daschle debacle. He certainly hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. He's just a wealthy businessman who wants in on the action in Washington.

But for kicks, we thought you might want to know where Hindery comes down on the all-important issue of the day, the issue plaguing President Obama as he works to fill out his Cabinet: taxes.

In his 2005 book "It Takes a CEO: It's Time to Lead With Integrity," Hindery writes (on page 14), "Our government persists in designing tax cuts for people in the higher income brackets. To put it bluntly, tax cuts for rich people only make rich people richer. Giving more money to people who are already in full-consumption mode - and therefore are unlikely to spend more - is bad economics, not to mention an affront to the rest of society."