If Tom Daschle’s “limousine liberal” venality and Nancy Killefer’s penny-ante tax offenses disqualify them from posts that include spending tax dollars, how can Tim Geithner stay on in a position that includes collecting those tax dollars?

Not only did Geithner neglect to pay his taxes, he turned a buck by doing so—accepting payments from his employer for the very purpose of offsetting those taxes. When he took the money, he signed a statement promising to pay the taxes and then ignored his obligations—for years. Protected by a statute of limitations, he did not pay his 2001–02 taxes until his nomination made them a public issue.
If Daschle’s tax problems should bar him from managing the federal health-services bureaucracy and Killefer’s preclude her from scrutinizing the budget, how is it that Geithner’s transgressions—the worst of the lot—are insufficient to disqualify him from managing the same Internal Revenue Service whose attentions he evaded?

I argued against GeithnerÂ’s confirmation when his misdeeds first came to light. Now that two other appointees have been forced out over tax issues, the argument against his serving as Secretary of the Treasury is even more compelling. Perhaps he and President Obama need to learn the lesson of the little parable that my father kept taped to his bedroom mirror when I was a kid.

Sometime when you're feeling important;
Sometime when your ego's in bloom
Sometime when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified in the room,
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul;
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is a measure of how you will be missed.
You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop and you'll find that in no time
It looks quite the same as before.
The moral of this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself but remember,
There's no indispensable man.

Secretary Geithner may be a great guy, and may have many skills and qualifications for his office – but his transgressions are such that he is and should be disqualified from holding a position that oversees the collection of taxes. After all, even if he is “uniquely qualified” for the post, his failure to pay taxes ought to be uniquely disqualifying for the job.

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 01:39 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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