Guilt is in the Eye of the Tax Cheat

This is really all that needs to be said about the Daschle tax revelation, from Melanie Sloan:

"If the guy who is overseeing the IRS can get away with a tax problem, how are you going to hold up the health and human services secretary over taxes?" she asked.

But more can be said. Daschle lobbied for the health care industry, which seems to break Obama's tough new lobbying rule. When asked if he was still supporting the nomination Obama declared, "absolutely". So that's it, no more needs to be said.

But more can be said. When Joe the Plumber's records were rifled after being mentioned by McCain during the last debate it was learned he also had a tax problem. That was used derisively by the paragon of leftist thought, the Kos Masters:

Is it possible? Is this average, model American citizen a tax cheat? If that's the case, Joe doesn't really need to worry about his tax rates at all, does he?

Now nothing more needs to be said.

ALMOST ALL 2/3/09

Daschle did the right thing for America and withdrew his nomination, stating that he didn't want to be a distraction. Funny thing is, Obama didn't seem to mind the distraction. Anyway, here's how the AP described it:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.

"Now we must move forward," Obama said in a written statement accepting "with sadness and regret" Daschle's surprise request to be removed from consideration. A day earlier, Obama had said he "absolutely" stood by Daschle in the face of problems over back taxes and potential conflicts of interest.

"Speedy health care reform"? Not sure that belongs in a news story.

It's interesting how fast things changed. According to the story, the NY Times and Chicago Trib came out in the past 12 hours and called for him to withdraw, which had to weigh heavily on the power brokers eyeballing "speedy health care reform". They probably realized Daschle would forever be know as 'Secretary Tax Cheat', a huge disadvantage when the eventual push to raise taxes to pay for this speedy health care reform occurs (somewhere before 2012).

REACTION 2/3/09

HuffPo has a Drudge-like headline about the withdrawal, as if the Titanic had just resurfaced and sunk again. Poor guys, though, as yet another embarrassment befalls Mr. Sunshine (who didn't seem to care). So what's a liberal rag to do?

Report something about Rummy, of course! And have you ever seen a more ridiculous "news" article in your life?