Change we can believe in?

Yesterday Tom Dashcle withdrew his name for consideration for Secretary of Health and Human Services because he hadn't paid several hundred thousand in taxes. His withdraw marks the third person Obama has nominated to have had "trouble" paying their taxes in the past. Nancy Killefer was supposed to be his chief performance officer for the federal government, whatever that is, but she didn't pay her taxes either. The only one to get away with it is the new Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, who was inexplicably confirmed despite being a tax cheat himself. I guess this explains why Democrats don't mind raising taxes because they have no intention on actually paying them.

Does anyone else wonder why it takes a Senate investigation to uncover all these unpaid taxes? Isn't that what the IRS is for? Apparently, they aren't worried if you are either rich or politically connected. How much more money is out there in unpaid taxes that could be used to help pay down some of our ballooning budget deficit? Maybe we should have Obama randomly appoint people so the Senate can dig into their past and see how much they owe in taxes.

This is not a good start for the Obama administration. The entire scenario reeks of hypocrisy. Not only has there been a pattern of not paying taxes by his nominees but this is the second well known nominee to withdraw because of ethical concerns. Anyone else remember Bill Richardson? I thought Obama was supposed to usher in an era of good government and restore confidence in our leadership. Instead, we get the same old, same old; attempts to reward political allies with plum government appointments despite their ethical lapses. Obviously, he was full of change we can't believe in.

It will be interesting to see how quickly the media can sweep this under the rug. I guarantee you by next week, there will not be one story printed connecting the dots and pointing out this pattern of appointing unethical people. It just doesn't fit into their make believe Camelot storyline.