Obama’s picks are laughable. It doesn't really surprise me too much that--after the primary revelations of "people in my neighborhood" with questionable backgrounds and histories that surrounded Obama--we would see problems with his choices to serve in his Administration. You would think that the vetting committee would have done a better job under the circumstances.
I guess,as we'll see further on down, that this is going to boil down to what your definition of ethics is. So we're back to the old Clintonian, legalese-sleaze. Change we can believe in, yessirree buddy.
Just in case you're scoring at home, we have three tax evasion issues, two "former lobbyist" issues and three nominees withdrawn so far. And we're less than one month into the Administration.
This should be an interesting four years.
NOMINEES WITHDRAWN:
Commerce: BILL RICHARDSON A guy who’s already had to pull his name out of consideration in disgrace, because of corruption problems. A pay for play scheme, or so I've heard. Maybe he can commiserate with Blago.
Health and Human Services: TOM DASCHLE A guy who’s spent the last few years as a big-time lobbyist. Hey, whatever happened to that “no lobbyists” rule, Barack? Oh, I'm sorry, he was never "technically" registered as a lobbyist so ;) ;), right? Plus, another nominee who seems to have a cavalier attitude with regard to paying his taxes. Maybe we should give all the people sitting in jail who were convicted of similar offenses the same "innocent mistake" treatment.
Deputy Director OMB - Chief Performance Officer: NANCY KILLEFER withdrawn over undisclosed tax issues over unpaid D.C. U/E taxes.
So, that's Daschle, Killefer and Geithner who are either incompetent or evasive regarding paying their own taxes, with Geithner heading the very Department that oversees the IRS. BRILLIANT.
A loss of CONFIDENCE and FAITH and TRUST in the financial system will not be healed by putting the same foxes responsible for its collapse in charge of the hen house.
OTHER NOMINEES WITH QUESTION MARKS:
State: HILLARY CLINTON A woman whose only foreign policy experience was having tea with dignitaries (Obama’s words). Never mind that while serving as First Lady under President Clinton, the White House--via the Lincoln bedroom--was turned into some sort of Motel 6/ ATM machine for campaign contributions for the Clinton's. Now we put her in charge of international affairs after her husband received millions in contributions for his library from the very sovereign states that she will be making major policy decisions about. DOES THIS EVEN REMOTELY SMACK OF CONFLICT OF INTEREST? OR IS THERE SOME SORT OF POLITICAL PAYBACK EXCEPTION I'M NOT AWARE OF.
Treasury: GEITHNER A guy who hasn’t paid his taxes properly. He's either an idiot or a tax evader, either way unqualified for this position. Also, the co-pilot of the wreck of Bear Stearns, Lehman et. al., TARP 1.0 and the head of the New York Fed while this whole financial mess on Wall Street was brewing.
William Lynn - 2nd in command at the Pentagon - former lobbyist for Raytheon. There must be a "former lobbyist exception" employed here as well.
Justice: HOLDER A guy who enabled a pardon for a tax-evading fugitive.
Homeland Security: A woman who strongly opposed–and vowed not to follow–one of the centerpieces of the new security apparatus.
Trade Representative: A guy who lobbied (successfully) for clemency for a drug dealer because the criminal’s daddy gave lots of money to Democrats.
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FROM TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE:
According to the White House, the important thing is that Tom Daschle is not technically a lobbyist. "If you're not registered to lobby, you can't be a
lobbyist," explains White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. And Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader who is up for the top health post in the Obama Cabinet, never filled out the paperwork to register.
--------------------
That distinction matters quite a bit because Barack
Obama promised during his campaign that lobbyists
"would not get a job in my White House." On his first full
day in office, that pledge turned into the new
President's first official policy, when he signed an Executive
Order banning lobbyists from serving in his Administration.
The order did come with some fine print, however — a
waiver process that the White House counsel could invoke at
will in the name of the "public interest," allowing
an undetermined number of former lobbyists to effectively
violate the new policy.
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