Stock Trading - Daschle Withdraws Nomination Due to Tax Malfunction
Daschle Political death and taxes
Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary, lucky he wasn't an equity finance guy in charge of the IRS, now that would be serious.
It was Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 1789, who used the now famous phrase - "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." and I'm not so sure about death. Undertakers and tax lawyers are pleased of course.
Something clearly went on behind the scenes. Obama is fast losing credibility if he keeps picking people who have trouble paying their taxes and then tries to justify it by saying it was a mistake or inadvertent or some such euphemism.
People are bemoaning the fact that Daschle has withdrawn but they do not seem to bothered that he didn't pay his taxes. How very odd. Perhaps none of them pay taxes? What the hell do I know. Like I said earlier maybe Obama has decided to make taxes optional. But you would think with their money and connections they would be able to get themselves a good tax attorney.
There are also people, (serious people not Joe Schmos like me) who still think it's not too late for Tim Geithner to withdraw - to have your vote on whether you think he should be US Treasury Secretary please visit GeithnerGate and click yea or nay!
Daschle's statement has surprised everyone and has come less than three hours after Nancy Killefer, the Obama nominee to be the government's "first chief performance officer" also withdrew also over tax problems. She said she "didn't want her bungling of payroll taxes on her household help to be a distraction."
Daschle is the 3rd high-profile Obama nominee to withdraw. Obama had wanted Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico, as Commerce secretary, he withdrew amid an investigation by the grand jury into a state contract awarded to his political donors.
About Daschle, Obama said "Tom made a mistake, which he has openly acknowledged. He has not excused it, nor do I. But that mistake and this decision cannot diminish the many contributions Tom has made to this country."
Daschle was also facing questions about possible conflicts of interests concerning speaking fees he accepted from health care interests.
According to Republican Sen. Jim DeMint Obama was "losing credibility" through his support for Daschle. "Part of leadership is recognizing when there has been a mistake made and responding quickly."
The New York Times had described Daschle's ability to move "cozily between government and industry" as a problem for any role he might be called upon to play in reforming the health care system.
The Chicago Tribune said "to proclaim high standards and then suspend them exposes Obama to charges that he is either hypocritical or obtuse."
Daschle explained his tax malfunctions by saying "It was completely inadvertent, but that's no excuse. I apologize to President Obama, to my colleagues and to the American people."
Clearly he wasn't going to say forgetful, Geithner had already grabbed that one so a quick look into the thesaurus provided 'inadvertent'. What next?
Best to stick to stock trading it's far more predictable.
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