Yesterday would have been a bad day for any administration. But for the Obama administration, which recently proclaimed a "new era of responsibility" and promised to be the most ethical administration in history, (now where have we heard that one before, ummmmm, Bill?) it was a complete public relations disaster!
Within the span of just a few hours Tuesday morning, President Obama saw two of his high-profile picks — HHS nominee Tom Daschle and performance czar Nancy Killefer — withdraw because they were discovered to be tax cheats.
The stunning fall of Daschle comes after Timothy Geithner, the man Obama singled out to run the Treasury Department (which runs the IRS, by the way), was confirmed by the Senate after equally embarrassing revelations that he is also a tax cheat having failed to pay some $35,000 in taxes.
"The president has confidence in the process," press secretary Robert Gibbs said at Tuesday's press briefing. Now how would you like to have this guy’s job - - having to come out and lie to the press everyday with a straight face with a mouthful of crap sandwich? It's a good thing someone still has confidence in the process, because the rest of us are starting to wonder.
Obama spent most of Tuesday afternoon doing a series of previously scheduled network TV interviews that turned into a parade of presidential mea culpas. (For those of us who work and actually pay our taxes, that means ‘I screwed up!’) Wait! How is this possible? I thought America elected The One! An entity incapable of error! One who’s every action is perfect simply because the action is His!
"I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards," President B. Hussein Obama told CNN's Anderson Cooper, "one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes." Well, little Buckaroo, that is EXACTLY the message you are sending by supporting a new Treasury secretary who is no less guilty than Daschle for failing to live up to his tax obligations!
It's no wonder we're now starting to see even some Obama supporters questioning whether this is the kind of "change we can believe in." Hey, all you Obama supporters; you bought it – now you own it!
By the way, I just did some quick ciphering in my head and the way I figure it, if all the high-ranking Democrats and Obama appointees just paid their taxes, we would not have a deficit and would have the money for a stimulus bill!
