Would Daschle matter?

Yglesias,

I think it’s hard to deny that health care reform would, in some sense, be going more smoothly had not the Tom Daschle nomination wound up getting derailed.

I guess I'm just confused as to why anyone can feel confident making such a statement. Would Max Baucus be better behaved if Tom Daschle were involved? I sort of doubt that. Also it's not as if there is an administration plan that Daschle would be shepherding through. I just don't see how Tom Daschle makes a difference in this particular process. Perhaps the argument is that the president would have proceeded differently and proposed a more concrete plan if Daschle were on board?

To be fair Yglesias was much less convinced of the Daschle as savior theory than Josh Marshall.