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Political Hay
Class Carfare
Barack the plumber flushes out Daschle.
During the presidential campaign Barack Obama defended America’s unwieldy and rapacious tax system, informing Joe the Plumber that the purpose of the IRS is to “spread the wealth around.” Joe Biden chipped in that paying higher taxes is “patriotic.”
Tom Daschle has now been thrown under the party’s fleet of limousines (though whether his old car and driver participated in running him over isn’t clear to me). Nonetheless, the richly ironic first image left by Obama’s first days is that of an elite cabal of bumbling tax evaders, awarding themselves an upper-class tax cut through cluelessness. Daschle’s class carfare has undone him.
A president ostensibly committed to a redistributionist system of complex and onerous taxes has managed to saddle himself with a Treasury secretary who is now principally known for avoiding them. Unwittingly and trivially, true, but still it is an unexpungeable PR stain for Obama’s chief tax collector.
Of all the people to withdraw, one would have thought Geithner might have raised his hand. Instead, Nancy Killefer had to drop out haplessly, withdrawing her nomination as performance czar for not paying the District of Columbia some specious unemployment household-help tax (a foot-fault probably on the order of running behind in paying D.C.’s tyrannical parking tickets).
Looking back at the intense discussions about taxes during the campaign, it is notable that unpaid taxes has turned out to be the easiest place to grab on the ethically untucked shirt of the Obama administration. Who is next? Where will it end? What worthy public servant hasn’t failed from time to time to pay $130,000 in taxes?
Obama’s gaudy promises of the let’s-change-“the way Washington works” variety puts one in mind of Bill Clinton’s amusingly brazen whopper that he endeavored to preside over the “most ethical administration ever,” a claim Clinton made fresh from the most unethical campaign ever. Perhaps Obama’s is shaping up to be the second most ethical administration ever.
Indeed, as Daschle headed back to K Street by foot, Obama’s White House bragged about its staggeringly high ethical bar, implying that it is higher, if conceivable, than the Clinton administration’s and surely Bush’s. One would think Obama, who in the end is just a standard-issue liberal pol, no worse than anyone but not appreciably better either, would downplay expectations not just on the economy but on these matters too. Who is he kidding?
“Ethical” in any case is a weasel word that denotes not morality but the careful, consultant-assisted observation of technical rules, tax, political, and otherwise — exactly what his would-be administration hasn’t been doing. A while back Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (which was Obama’s proudest legislative accomplishment) passed a reform bill with that as the dominant definition of ethics.
To be ethical meant one hired a competent accountant, a savvy consultant, etc., and one filled out forms properly, observed corrupt lobbying rules precisely, and paid taxes and fees promptly and completely. How disappointing, then, to see Daschle, an early architect of this New Jerusalem, commit such an avoidable oversight: an accountant, an accountant, his cabinet post for an accountant.
By its own silly definitions, the Obama administration appears unethical and unpatriotic (in the Biden sense), a collection of trivial rule-breakers and minor tax cheats. Still, one would think that a brave and idealistic liberal president might shrug off these matters and stand by the Daschles, lest the nation be deprived of their abundant talents.
In his mind he needed Geithner, but Daschle apparently was expendable — too much of an embarrassment after Obama allowed himself a week of pot shots at jet-setting fat cats. Also, he needs to resume his campaign of class warfare, and if its first victims are would-be members of his own cabinet, so be it.
About the Author
George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (45) | Leave a comment
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drudge ette obama| 2.4.09 @ 7:42AM
This is right on target. Ultimately Obama becomes "Ethical" when it serves Obama's interests, but Obama makes Ethical Exceptions when it serves his interests. Ethics is ethics, even when it's hard, Obama. And his p.r. dance yesterday on the news shows is classic JKF admitting his mistakes rather than Nixon not. The only problem is that anyone 45 or older probably studied that concept in college, so we see his network dance yesterday for what it was - an attempt to reverse substantive error. Today, I see Obama's crooners "lovin' that Obama had the guts to apologize, they are so proud of him. But you have to wonder if the veneer has been worn in their inner selves.
I think this will be viewed as a mistake, ultimately, on Obama's part. He will have to do the network dance every time he screws it up. It was unpresidential.
Homeless LeRino | 2.4.09 @ 8:02AM
Remember the Contract with America ? Remember a provision called the Taxpayer Protection Act? A Republican majority Congress, which included a large number of Rinos, passed it handily. I rember what Daschle and alot of dems did not like the bill at all, but gave in because it played well among the great majority of Americans. Those were the good old days when the party was not dominated by conservative absolutist, but resonated with a message all Americans appreciated.
Robert Rosencrans| 2.4.09 @ 8:12AM
Within minutes of the Kellefer withdrawal, the info babes on CNN and MSNBC were decrying the fact that a woman had to withdraw and the men were being treated differently. One of the info babe spinners claimed it wasn't discrimination, simply that Kellefer was the "third" in line.
I knew then that Daschle would soon be sacrificed to the politics of victim identity.
When you reduce humanity to a series of gender trade offs, affirmative action hat dances and cradle to grave statism, you occasionally fall into your own tar pit.
nur07| 2.4.09 @ 8:39AM
Good riddance to bad rubbish. All three of these tax cheats should have been out as soon as the "errors" were discovered.
I can hardly believe Geithner, the tax evader, is heading up the treasury! Talk about the fox guarding the hen house.
Either these three (especially the first two) were just what they appear to be (liars and cheats) or they are distinctly incompetent and should not be anywhere near Washington. Although truth be told, lying, cheating and incompetency seem par for the course these days.
loulou| 2.4.09 @ 10:29AM
Geithner must step down for the good of the country. He's a tax evader and should be in jail like I would be if I pulled stunts like he did.
Obama is a sociopath. He doesn't know right from wrong and doesn't care to know. His brain isn't able to register what is ethical and what is unethical.
J David| 2.4.09 @ 12:03PM
As long as the 'Bamster has RINO shills fronting his various cons and shell games, and the MSM to run interference for him he is invulnerable. All of the howling and squealing by insignificant little bloggers, and conservative newsers won't amount to a hill o' beans, and he will be shutting them up very shortly. He has no interest in "ending crisis", in fact, it is just the opposite. And that "crisis" will include executive(if nothing else works)orders cutting off *negative influences, dragging down the confidence and hope of the American people, in this most dire national emergency*(conservative talk and blogs).
lehrue stevens jr.m.d.| 2.4.09 @ 12:29PM
Paranoid I am but I remember the W.H. travel office and FBI files. It appears those under bus are ex-Hillary supporters who switched to "Bam Bam" while her people are driving the bus. Bye bye BamBam!!
Culper, Jr.| 2.4.09 @ 12:43PM
This all harkens back to a quote from Bill Clinton that I feel sums up the whole, shoddy mess. I remember Clinton saying "Hillary has the best moral compass of anyone I have ever known."
The thing about that statement that always terrified me was not that it was one of his serial lies, but that it was actually true. His wife, the "unindicted co-conspirator" probably DID have a better sense of morals than the other con men, felons and toadies who populated his world.
Now, we see this phenomenon coming back in spades. Those senators who pronounced Tom Daschle to be "an honorable man" were, by their own standards, telling the truth. Compared to Ted Kennedy, Ted Stevens, Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, Larry Craig and some of the other scum in Washington, Daschle's record is spotless.
Michael Roush| 2.4.09 @ 1:10PM
Obviously there is no defense of Daschle's evasion of taxes. However, I have three observations about the discussion of Mr. Daschle's demise. (1) Given the mantra of conservatives and Republicans - that taxes should always be cut because we know better than the government how to spend our money - I'm surprised Mr. Daschle is not something of a folk hero to those on the right for trying to hang onto his cash instead of give it to the government. (2) Had this administration been Republican and the nominee a member of the GOP, the silence on this issue among those on the right would have been deafening, except for those who would have attempted to mount a defense of the culprit based on the mantra. (3) Obama acknowledged the problem and took personal responsibility. This never happened in the previous administration.
Truth to Power| 2.4.09 @ 2:37PM
If they were Republican they would have been gone as soon as discovered. The press and his mind-numbed supporters have given Obama a free ride and it always comes as a surprise to Democrats that they will be held to some kind of ethical standard. In the words of Reverend Wright, "the chickens have come home to roost".
Michael Roush| 2.4.09 @ 4:06PM
Truth?toPower
A Republican would be gone? Yeah, just like Rove was gone. Guess W was kidding when he said anyone in his administration who leaked the identity of a CIA would be fired.
Obama is getting a free ride? Hell, Bush got one for 71/2 years. And Wright is correct - the chickens have come home to roost: an unnecessary war, an economy in crisis, debt and deficits as far as the eye can see. A good deal of this mess can be laid at the feet of the Bush administration. Of course, W will never take responsibility and his supporters will never admit it.
Marc Jeric| 2.4.09 @ 4:10PM
These tax cheats are the least of our problems. We have that expert cattle futures trader heading the State Department, who, in the 120-minute testimony in front of a grand jury, declared "I don't remenber" and "I don't recall" 145 times - that must be a world record (once every 49 seconds)! Her expertise in world affairs will be backed up by her disbarred felon of a husband who peddled his influence for some 250 million dollars in "donations" by foreign contributors.
Alan Brooks| 2.4.09 @ 4:15PM
Blagojevich was on the Letterman show.
social progress is fun, is'nt it?
Alan Brooks| 2.4.09 @ 4:15PM
isn't it?
Melvin| 2.4.09 @ 5:53PM
There is a solution to all this. It is called the "Fair Tax." By forcing government to adopt this form a taxation that takes the power from the politicians and put it back into the hands of the governed is the only solution.
Government will not do so willingly and it will be a long drawn out battle, because those in power will realize that they will no longer have the power to skim millions upon millions of tax dollars and put into pet projects or corrupt organization ala Acorn.
Tax reform needs to be the mantra of Americans instead of what's in it for me.
Jeremiah| 2.4.09 @ 6:01PM
Is it Michael LaRoush? You're stinking up the place, moron.
Alan Brooks| 2.4.09 @ 6:05PM
Hagen:
"I could help"
Michael:
"you're out, Tom"
Michael Roush| 2.4.09 @ 9:42PM
Jeremiah,
So, you've decided to pimp for the GOP and the conservatives. For awhile I thought you had a brain. You showed a little frontal lobe activity in some of your earlier posts. Alas, now you are simply part of the entertainment value provided by the idiotocracy.
Marc,
Ever heard of Alberto Gonzalez? That clown remember absolutely nothing.
Randall A. Robinson| 2.4.09 @ 10:53PM
Melvin nailed it. Indeed, if we had the "Fair Tax" then Obama would have no problem with most of these cabinet appointments. Our tax code is so arcane that even cabinet-level candidates can't deal with it.
Nick| 2.4.09 @ 11:46PM
Mr. Roush,
You wrote: "Obama is getting a free ride? Hell, Bush got one for 71/2 years." Excuse me?
Exactly what planet do you bleeding heart liberals live on? Or does your BDS rage impinge on your brain's logic & memory centers? Maybe your tinfoil hats cause what you see, hear, and read to turn into the opposite of reality. You stinking libs truly live in Bizaro World.
1Freeman| 2.5.09 @ 11:08AM
OMG, I laughed so loud when Daschle was voted out of politics. He was such a pompous and ridiculous representative that he just had to go. And when his name once again appeared in politics as Obama's choice I was stunned. Are you KIDDING ME! But here, again, he has done himself in. Hopefully this will be the end of his role in capitol-level politics.
Obama's gaffes are just beginning. In just weeks he has stumbled so many times that he looks like a child running his daddies company. "Look Mom, I get to play executive today."
The expense to the tax payers to prosecute the next four-years-long list of Democrat law breakers will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe the DOJ will be the ones needing a bailout!
To the rest of the tax-evading, law breaking Dems: We will uncover your lawlessness. Get out, and stay out!
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 1:11PM
but O. will be re-elected 2012.
Obama is making all his mistakes at the beginning, as Clinton did, the better to triangulate you my dear. plus he is black and he is set for life.
plus O. is a real family man, he keeps his trousers on...
dont ever forget how Clinton was written off '93- '4 and now his wife is secstate.
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 1:48PM
Michelle might even be appointed secstate in 2017.
Homeless LeRhino| 2.5.09 @ 3:04PM
I would not want Michelle mad at me. The one cheats on her, and the one starts sounding like Franky Valli hitting a high note. I mean that is one kind of change our man Hussein does not believe in.
angryjake| 2.5.09 @ 3:38PM
Roush, Rove did not need Senate approval to serve in his job. I remind Reno served 8 years after Waco. Put on your imagination hat and tell me what would have happened to Ashcroft, if he had ordered that fiasco. You guys have no standing on the matter of fitness for office, none.
Jeremiah| 2.5.09 @ 8:53PM
Michael LaRousch, I still have vital signs but you're turning into a stuffed carcass (stuffed at every point of view, incidentally, if you're still a liberal) if you don't notice times they are -a- changing. Adapt. Darwin. Be creative.
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 11:24PM
why do you come here, Jeremiah? go to a liberal blog.
adapt.
be creative.
Reads1| 2.7.09 @ 10:39AM
Good article, one exception. Your last sentence, third para. gives Geithner a pass, This man deliberately pocketed the cash GIVEN to him to PAY HIS TAXES by the IMF. This was NOT unwitting and trivial but a deliberate and criminal act!
Jeremiah| 2.7.09 @ 8:09PM
Alan, I happen to like you, I stole those lines in Michael Mann's *Collateral* I use them from time to time with the living dead (nice moniker for libturds) when they creep out of their underground inferno. You have guts and you stand your ground. We shall overcome! In 2010.
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