I want to be supportive of our President. I just want to make that clear because I don’t expect this post will convey that feeling.
I’m sure part of it is the spirit of partisanship, and part of it is the media propensity to focus on the scandalous, but I don’t think that any other President has had as pervasive a problem as President Obama is having in getting appointees who have not made very basic financial mistakes.
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- Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary owed $26K in back taxes
- Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration as Commerce Secretary because of a grand jury investigation into a pay-to-play scheme
- Hillary Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of State was contingent upon some disclosure issues regarding foreign donors to Bill Clinton’s foundation – her confirmation was held up by one day because of lingering concerns
- Tom Daschle will likely still become withdrew his name from consideration to become the Secretary of Health and Human Services despite the fuss about his failure to pay $140K in taxes on a political gift
- Nancy Killefer withdrew her name from filling the position of Chief Performance Officer because of failure to pay unemployment taxes for her domestic help
I’m not sure if it’s comforting or disturbing to think that this may have much less to do with poor picks by the president and more to do with the culture of "anything you can get away with is fine" in Washington.
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It can be argued that some of these people were caught by the farcically complex tax system we have evolved in this country. But that argument might also imply incompetence. Why is it that the ‘financial genius’ guy is the only tax evader among this group that managed to get confirmed? And for the others; Secretary Clinton’s conflicts of interest are problematic, to say the least.
Don’t worry, I’d be just as harsh on GOP nominees if the same kinds of issues surfaced. It’s just that we were promised a new era of ethics and accountability this time around, so it’s easy to get jaded when you see the same old stuff popping up.
Why did Geithner get confirmed while the others had to withdraw? That’s easy. he was the first. He got confirmed before the public was aware of a pattern.
The thing I like about you is that you treat both sides the same, complaining about the abuses of whoever is abusing the system.
As always, the only course open to us is to hope for the best, work for the best, but don’t plan on the best from government.