With Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer withdrawing their nominations yesterday because they were too important of Americans to pay their taxes…. the time is NOW for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to step down.
The rationale is that “only Geithner” can somehow stop the slide into the Second Great Depression, so he is too invaluable to lose over some pesky tax thing. Really? Well just about a year ago was when we first started hearing about how the 2nd Depression was looming and Hank Paulson seemed to handle the job quite well — even if you disagree with the policies and speed in which he acted.  Hey, how about Larry Summers? He’d be fine, if you have to put up with a Democrat manipulating economic policy.
My point — NO ONE is indispensible. That’s how the private sector operates — for good or bad. Just what gives the folks in Washington the idea that they are above the law or above accountability?  Secretary Geithner is a cancer on the Obama Presidency.
Geithner’s tax crimes are worse than anything that any member of the Bush Administration did while in office, including Scooter Libby. No, I’m not defending lying under oath. But I am asking for some relative comparison here. Geithner broke the law and has never answered for it. And HE is our Treasury Secretary?
Disgusting.
I’m calling my US Senator and the White House today. Geithner must go. President Obama is a complete hypocrite if he allows Geithner to remain in office.
[Ed. Note — This rant was inspired by the excellent argument laid out yesterday by Larry Kudlow at The Corner; he being my “personal economic guru hero”… if there is such a title.]
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
UPDATE (from Dan): While I pretty much agree with Bruce, I should just say for the record that I don’t think Nancy Killefer should have stepped down due to her tax problem. As I wrote in my post on the revelation of her late tax deliquancy, she “resolved” it “before Obama tapped her.” Neither Daschle nor Geithner addressed their problems until after they had been tapped for positions in the president’s cabinet.
The fact that Chairman Zero hasn’t asked for Geithner’s resignation kinda shows that his “I screwed up” mea culpa was just a PR ploy, with no real substance behind it.
Seems to have worked on the mush-brained Oprah-loving sect that worships him, though.
Did you hear the dear leader yesterday when talking with Fox News Chris Wallace call us “ordinary Americans”?
He said Mr Dashle in the end couldn’t stay because the country had to know that there couldn’t be a different standard for the folks in his administration and the ‘”ordinary” folks out there. I for one and not ordinary. I work, am successful, have a good life style and pay my taxes. I don’t try to claim other peoples earnings and basically just want to be left alone. I wish my President wouldn’t call me ordinary. Just another example of his arrogance and being out of touch with real Americans.
For marginally competent administrations, how long is the honeymoon period usually? More than 14 days I assume? hehe
Seriously, even though the network anchors Tuesday nite were easy on Obama, so aw shucks, “did it make you angry that two of your top picks had to back out”……
Even though they are trying to save face with him, this morning MSNBC is indicating the honeymoon is over, the change, the hope, is mostly gone. For MSNBC that is news.
GP by keeping Geithner, it is tainting almost everything else these lefties try to do. I’m not so sure he should go. Without Richardson and Geithner…I think Dashle and Ms performance get approved. Even Caroline Schlossberg got more attention focused on her because of Blago and all these crooked Dems.
Era of corruption was coined mostly because of a toe tapper and a guy who sent dirty e mails to minors.
What the heck would you call this 90 days?
I knew the Obama administration would be characterized by flaming corruption and clownish incompetence… but I never imagined there would be this much in just the first two weeks.
VDH writes of: The Impending Obama Meltdown. I don’t think Obama’s going to meltdown, I think after these teething pains he will regain some measure of control. But the bloom is definitely off the rose.
Gene, Gene, Gene,
We are all ordinary citizens if we are not in the politburo. We are the worker bees, the ants carrying the leaves, the victims who are beset by THEM from whom the politburo has come to save us.
Eventually, Bambi will be able to look into the camera and say, “we are all ordinary citizens, now.” (Except for the Ordinary Citizen Organizers.)
I’ve mentioned this before….in the old USSR there would be lines of people on sidewalks in the cold snowy Moscow winters, lined up in food ques. And there speeding by would be the black shiney Zil limousines off to the Kremlin to do the “peoples” work. The soviet communist elite. Is that what is in store for the USA?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hMJVXt09E
Are there any of these Democrats that aren’t morons?
What a clown act.
Obama’s Mea Culpa position will ring hollow until he purges ALL tax evaders from his cabinet.
To The Snob and the rest of the DNC/MSN politburo, some Americans are more ordinary than others.
Regards,
Peter H.
Did she actually say 500 million Americans will lose their jobs? That’s hysterical. Maybe she’s counting Canada and Mexico’s populations too, along with central America, part of South America…
It’s rare that I feel hatred toward someone but that woman is so stupid and arrogant, she’s as dangerous as they come and I have to work really hard to resist wishing terrible things for her.
I should have clarified, I was referring to the video that Gene linked.
#14 – PG, she’s thrown this number around before. TownHall has a snip from a previous interview that Bela Pelosi did with Chris Wallace where she bandied about this nonsensical “500 million” number. He actually had to correct her and she said something to the effect of “fifty million or 500, it’s still too many.”
Even when they’re WRONG, Dhimmicrats have to argue the point.
Typical libtards.
Regards,
Peter H.
Bruce, I would actually agree to Larry Summers as Treas Sec’y again. Anyone who manages to totally hack off the snobby professors at Princeton by exposing their own libtard hypocrisy gets my vote.
Regards,
Peter H.
The troubling thing for me is the Democrat caucuses pick, elect, these people to be their leaders!! Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Dumb and dumber, boobs and boobier. The face of the Democrat Congress.
In addition to being up to his eyeballs in the Blago scandal, Rahm Emanual seems to have violated housing law.
Gene, please stop hammering on Nancy. After all, if both Obama and Biden are ever assassinated, SHE’S your new president.
And of course YOU are not considering the millions of illegal-alien Americans. Nancy has to protect THEIR jobs, too (all while “saving the planet”–no wonder she looks haggard).
Nanny Rictus Botox was just confusing the number of unemployed with the number of voters ACORN registered in the last election.
Giethner claimed a daycare deduction (a credit) for his children’s summer camp stays even though his accountant warned him this is expressly forbidden in the tax code.
Although the deduction isn’t much, this is just the kind of ‘rotten apple pie’ story that brings corruption to the level of ordinary folk. And that’s why we haven’t heard a peep about it.
And yet another Obama appointment has corruption problems. This time, the Number 2 man at Housing and Urban Development, Ron Sims.
I fail to understand the bashing and invective over a tax-filing mistake. Geitner declared the income correctly when earned; he was mistaken over the amount to tax due…and paid the back-taxes, interest and civil penalties. Including taxes he wasn’t legally-compelled to pay. Unlike Dashle who failed to report the taxable income in the first place.
Making a mistake is not a crime. Are we going to criminalize every tax-audit and jail everyone who makes a filing mistake or takes bad tax advice? Let’s have some common sense in the rush to make Obamessiah look bad.
#23 – “Are we going to criminalize every tax-audit and jail everyone who makes a filing mistake or takes bad tax advice?”
Yes, if they happen to be nominated for Secretary of the Treasury, which oversees the IRS and is responsible for its operations.
Try again.
Regards,
Peter H.
Gee, and just how understanding do you think the IRS would be with any of us if we “forgot” to pay $120,000 in taxes and penalties.
The insider trading deal Martha Stewart went to prison for was only $45,000.
Can ANYONE tell me how it is that both Geithner and Daschle were able to pay back taxes and interest only? Why did they not pay penalties as well? Someone had to excuse the penalties, but whom?
#22, Holy cow. So a Democrat is under suspicion of withholding records showing ineligible ballots were counted in one of the closest Governors races in US history? The Democrat won that race if I recall by less than 400 votes. So my Democrat President promotes him to #2 at HUD. This can’t be happening.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/02/04/obama-names-most-fined-washington-state-bureaucrat-to-hud/
A Democrat consultant looking a bit embarrassed this morning had the onions to say….yes there is a lot of dirty laundry being displayed lately, Dashel, Killefer, Richardson, Blago, Emmanual, Geithner and more but “that is a testament to the transparency and openess of this administration.” So these aren’t examples of a dumb and incompetent Democrat transition team or an example of a Democrat administration that is out of it’s depth. It was all planned to show how transparent they are about their warts and flaws. See now I’m sure you view all this in a different lite huh?
#26 When the President says both the tax scofflaws “are good men (white men) that made honest mistakes”…which bureaucrat is gonna dispute that.
Has anyone coined the nickname “Barack Odrama” yet?
#30 – V, I think you just did! 😉
Regards,
Peter H.
I hope he doesn’t resign. I look forward to referring to the ‘tax cheat that heads the IRS” for the next four years.