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| The17sss |
So far, the incoming Barack Obama administration has given us a tax cheat/incompetent to run the IRS (Tim Geithner) and at least three lobbyists to regulate their industries (William Lynn, Mark Patterson, Neal Wolin). Now we're back to tax evasion, and once again it's a major Cabinet appointment:
| quote: | ABC News has learned that the nomination of former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, to be President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services has hit a traffic snarl on its way through the Senate Finance Committee. The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Mr. Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend, a chauffer service the former Senator used for years without declaring their use on his taxes.
Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser, Leo Hindery, the former president of the YES network (the Yankees' and Devils' broadcast network).
That same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia 2005, Mr. Daschle began using the services of Hindery’s car and driver.
The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia but Mr. Daschle — who as Senate Majority Leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense — didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require. |
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalp...-in-the-ro.html
Daschle's team claims that the former Senator deserves the credit for revealing the problem himself. Daschle did report this, but only after getting picked as HHS Secretary. If that sounds familiar, it's because that's when Geithner suddenly discovered that he owed Uncle Sam money too, only Daschle paid back a lot more: over $100,000.
How many more people will Obama nominate who either are too incompetent or too dishonest to declare all of their income and pay all of their taxes? Is this the new career track for tax cheats...a Cabinet office? Ahh yes, change. |
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| Alex |
Do we really have to do this? Shall I point out the legions of crooked scum George W. Bush tried to appoint?
| quote: |
Bush Political Appointees: Criminals and Incompetents Glorified (Part II)
By Rawlein Soberano
In less than four weeks, the Bush administration will be history. Like Hurricane Katrina, it left along its wake some of the bitterest memories that Americans will remember on the level of the Great Depression of 1929 for the sufferings it caused the American people. At first glance, it is not difficult to figure out why and how did this come about. If those appointees can be described in one line—they are the glorification of criminality and incompetence. “Nemo dat quod non habet.” (Nobody can give what he doesn’t have!) That was another reason for the failure of the administration. You cannot run a successful organization when the players are short of talent and/or experience. They were big talkers who thought the “good life” was going to be around indefinitely; they acted like they were above the law and would never get caught or discovered.
Many were convicted, jailed, fined or had to do community service. All were disgraced; up on a pedestal one day and down in the gutter the next. Their actions tarnished the administration and the Republican Party and drove away many Republicans or killed their enthusiasm to remain active after they felt betrayed. They sent a message of unstoppable greed, rugged individualism of each man for himself, shameful selfishness of “give me, give me” culture but reluctant to pay their fair share of taxes for public services received, and demonization of social conscience and civic responsibility. For our purposes, they will be classified into 3 groups: a) indicted/ convicted/pled guilty; b) resigned due to investigation, pending investigation or allegations of impropriety; c) nomination failed due to scandal.
The list does not include the convicted or resigned GOP lawmakers, like Bob Ney of OH, Randy “Duke” Cunningham of CA, Mark Foley of FL, Larry Craig of ID, and Vito Fosella of NY. It covers only those who were appointed. Their boss (GWB) and their own performance have earned them the moniker of loser, stupid, liar, crooked or all of the above. Among this first group (indicted, convicted or pled guilty), we have Eric Andell, Deputy Undersecretary of Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools at the White House; Claude Allen, Asst. to Pres for Domestic Policy; Brian Doyle, Deputy Press secretary at DHS; Steven Griles, Deputy Secretary at DOI; John T. Korsmo, chair of Federal Housing Finance Board; Scooter Libby, chief of staff to VP Cheney; David Safavian, head of Office of Federal Procurement Policy at OMB; Robert Stein, comptroller of Coalition Provisional Authority in al-Hillah, Iraq; Roger Stilwell, Desk Officer at DOI; Lester Crawford, FDA Commissioner; Felipe Sixto, Special Asst. to President for intergovernmental affairs.
In the second group (resigned due to investigation, pending investigation, or allegations of impropriety), we have Philip Conery, chief of staff, White House counsel on Environmental Quality; George Deutch, press aide at NASA; Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, 3rd highest official at CIA; Alberto Gonzales, Attorney-General; Monica Goodling (mentioned in Part I); Michele Larson Korsmo, deputy chief of staff at DOI; Howard “Cookie” Krongard, State IG; Julie MacDonald (mentioned in Part I); Paul McNulty, deputy to Alberto Gonzales; Richard Perle, chair of Defense Policy Board; Susan Ralston, Asst. to Karl Rove; Janet Rehnquist IG at HHS; James Roche, secretary of Air Force; Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales; Joseph Schmitz, IG DOD; Bradley Schlognan, DOJ; Thomas Scully, administrator of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services; David Smith, Deputy Asst. Secretary for fish, wildlife & parks at DOI, John Tanner, chief of Voting Rights Section at DOJ; Sara Taylor, Deputy Asst. to President & Director of Political Affairs at White House; Ken Tomlinson, Board chair, Corporation of Public Broadcasting; Lurita Doan, GSA administrator; Alphonso Jackson, HUD secretary; Stewart Bowen, IG for Iraq Reconstruction; Carl Truscott, Director of ATF; and Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary at DOD and World Bank president.
Among the third group (nomination failed due to scandal), we have the following—Linda Chavez, nominated to be secretary of Labor but withdrew her name in Jan.’01; Timothy Flanigan, nominated for Deputy Attorney-General but withdrew in Oct. ’05; Bernard Kerik, named secretary of DHS, withdrew his name amidst a host of corruption allegations; William Mercer, Assoc. Deputy Attorney-General and US Attorney of MT withdrew his name from consideration to #3 job at DOJ; and Hans von Spakovsky, commissioner at FEC, nomination failed from work at DOJ to suppress minority voter turnout.
This is not the first chain of scandals that afflicted a Republican administration. From Richard Nixon and the break-in into the DNC at the Watergate hotel which ultimately resulted in the resignation of the president, to Ronald Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandals, saying one thing and doing another, which almost brought the president down as well, and this time around another American president’s reputation is tarnished by the malfeasance of his political appointees. Most of them were stationed in 4 agencies, e.g., White House, DOJ, DOI and DOD. When investigations focused on them, they either resigned or stepped down, but many did not face jail time for what they did. If they did a better job in their investigation to include, Energy, Treasury, MBDA, USDA, State, GSA, DOT, FDA, DOL, to mention some of them, there would have been more convictions or resignations.
RGS/AABR (12-30-08) |
SOURCE
So please, I think Obama's accomplished at least some change in that we aren't hearing about dozens of crooks, only a handful, which is to be expected given a whole lot of politicians are probably not the most moral people at all. |
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| Shakka |
| 2 wrongs don't make a right, and god damn if I can't stand Tom Daschle. I was really hoping he had faded into obscurity prior to his appointment--a damn shame. |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by Shakka
2 wrongs don't make a right, and god damn if I can't stand Tom Daschle. I was really hoping he had faded into obscurity prior to his appointment--a damn shame. |
Exactly. To Alex's point, the days of pointing the finger at Bush are over. Accountability is squarely on the Dem's shoulders now. Whorish spending bills and tax cheat appointees certainly isn't change... at least for the good. Looks like the ride may be a bit bumpier than expected for the Messiah. He shouldda vetted these mo-fo's better. |
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| Clovis |
I really don't like Daschle.
With that out of the way, it's great to see everyone batting for accountability and transparency, I just wonder where the all of you have been the last 8 years... |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by Clovis
I really don't like Daschle.
With that out of the way, it's great to see everyone batting for accountability and transparency, I just wonder where the all of you have been the last 8 years... |
werd. I've only been posting on TA for about 9 months, but believe me man, what Bush started doing around late 2004 into 2005 was the beginning of the end for my support. What made it so disheartening was that it was going completely against the values that the GOP stood for and what got him elected. Accountability was also lost. This quote from him in November pretty much sums it up (on why he was supporting a hugh bailout) as to how far he had lost his way from his conservative roots: "I'm going against free market principles to save the free market."
I don't wish him ill because I think he's a decent man... I just hope he disappears for a while and doesn't do anything else to up the GOP. |
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| Lebezniatnikov |
For what it's worth:
| quote: | The Finance Committee said he failed to report consulting income of $83,333 on his 2007 tax return and overstated the deductions to which he was entitled for charitable contributions from 2005 to 2007. In his amended tax returns, he reduced the deductions by $14,963.
Under his consulting arrangement with InterMedia, the report said, Mr. Daschle received $1 million a year, or $83,333 a month. The payment to Mr. Daschle for May 2007 was omitted from the annual statement of income sent to him by InterMedia. Ms. Backus said the omission resulted from “a clerical error by InterMedia.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/u...le.html?_r=1&hp |
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| The17sss |
haha! This keeps getting better. Apparently, Daschle can't even use the Geithner "I’m so stupid" excuse, as ABC also discovers that he flat out failed to report direct income:
| quote: | The report indicates that Daschle's failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns.
Mr. Daschle also didn't report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007. |
Plus, Daschle claimed almost $15,000 in charitable donations over three years to organizations that don't qualify for the deduction. How many Americans make so much money that they could forget about $83,000 of it in a year?
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalp...daschle-ta.html |
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