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One Response to “Back taxes cloud Daschle nomination”

1. Gene Lalor on January 31st, 2009 4:13 pm

   That’s One Helluva “Speed Bump!”

   I always thought speed bumps were those annoying little, raised concrete things on semi-private roads designed to slow traffic or to break an axle or two if drivers hit them going 50 mph or more.

   However, it seems in the new D.C. Doublespeak a speed bump can now refer to a prodigious obstacle for Democratic politicians which is reinterpreted to mean an inconsequential road pimple.

   Not too long ago, speed-bumpy charges of “nannygate-ism” sank two of Bill Clinton’s female candidates for attorney general and we ended up with the Democrat answer to British woman wrestler, Pandora Boxxx, none other than Janet Reno, the other Waco wacko:

   More recently, we have witnessed Obama’s nominee to run the Commerce Department, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, get derailed by accusations of sticky fingers in awarding contracts in the Land of Enchantment.

   The Richardson withdrawal was followed by various other blips in the new administration such as Obama flipflops on banned lobbyists. There shalt be no such people working for me, proclaimed the president! Yet they miraculously became un-banned and not problematic under certain circumstances.

   Then came the most ironic speed bump in the history of administrations, which was skillfully graded until the road was as smooth as a superhighway.

   Of all people, Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner had failed to pay his taxes while working at the IMF and earlier. This is Obama’s money man, the boy genius who would fix our dying economy but who could not figure that he too was supposed to pay his taxes.

   Geithner’s numerous sleight-of-hand tax tricks are detailed here: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/01/22/geithner-s-tax-troubles-there-s-much-more-press-virtually-ignoring-it.

   As with lobbyists, all became acceptable to our Democratic congress. As Ralph Kramden would say, they were “a mere bag of shells,” simply oversights and honest mistakes which Democrats poohpoohed before confirming him. After all, he did apologize and he paid up, didn’t he?

   Yes, he did, in the amount of $34,000, after he was caught.

   So we have an admitted tax cheat now installed as Secretary of the Treasury, the man who would make sure the hoi polloi paid their taxes. Word is, apologies will not be acceptable on April 15th.

   Now, it seems Obama’s pick as Health and Human Services Secretary, former Senate Democratic Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, has hit the Mother of All Bumps, $184,000 worth of unpaid taxes on a free Cadillac and driver and from consulting fees. This was in addition to cheating on his taxes for 3 years by claiming $15,000 for non-qualifying charitable contributions: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/more-daschle-ta.html.

   He, like Geithner, only realized his financial shenanigans after being chosen by Obama for HHS head. It’s amazing how the political nominating and vetting process work: Once a guy learns he’s on the short list for a plum job, he gets religion or, at least, gets nervous and pays his overdue dues.

   Daschle hasn’t done too shabbily since the people of South Dakota woke up and threw him out in 2004. In the interim, he hasn’t been a lobbyist per se but his wife Linda Hall sure has been. She happens to be one of Washington’s premiere advocates, mainly for various players in the aviation industry.

   Speed bumps? What speed bumps?

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