Tom Daschle declares that too much sunlight burns, and this is true…

…if you are a vampire*.

 

Or a notorious former lobbyist and current lawyer for a prominent law firm linked to lobbying – no, wait, that last bit is actually a little unfair to lobbying firms**. For all I know DLA Piper is not particularly horrible, at all.  But it says a lot about the power elite in the Democratic party that one of its former leaders thinks that it’s safe to utter the phrase ‘almost too much transparency’ in public.

Gah, but This Town can make your teeth ache…

Moe Lane

*Don’t be pedantic.  It’s a zinger, not a comprehensive assessment of high-risk groups for ultraviolet radiation damage.

**But not particularly unfair to Tom Daschle.

Sen. McCaskill: “We have paid every dime of our taxes.”

That is, McCaskill said that she did, back in 2006 (via Hot Air Headlines):

For those who don’t remember the initial controversy mentioned in the ad, McCaskill’s husband was linked to some extraordinarily poorly-operated Missouri nursing homes at the same time that McCaskill herself had oversight over Missouri nursing homes as Missouri State Auditor.  As you can see, back in 2006 McCaskill vehemently denied any wrongdoing, just before she declared that she paid her taxes.

Which she actually did not do in 2006; and has continued to not do since then.  Iknow that this is just repeating Bill S. ‘s excellent post from yesterday, which is why I would like to point out an old Tom Daschle campaign ad below. You may remember it: it’s the one where he bragged about driving his own car to work.

Continue reading Sen. McCaskill: “We have paid every dime of our taxes.”

Daschle’s revenge?

They cast him out. They mocked his greatness. They laughed at him. HIM! But he’ll show them!

He’ll show them all.

This is one time where excerpting isn’t going to cut it: let me summarize this article (“Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey*“) (H/T: AoSHQ) and then you can go read both it and the soon-to-be-federal law (here is the original, and here is the Nelson/Collins amendment). Essentially, McCaughey argues that the bill contains stealth provisions within it that will create a bureaucratic commission that will regulate acceptable medical treatments for patients. She then states that these provisions are “virtually identical” with those in Daschle’s book Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis, which supposedly advocates adopting a system where “approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit.” In other words: the older you get, the cheaper your treatment has to be in order to get the same consideration as someone younger than you. A helpful reminder of the bureaucratic wonders that can breed in the British health care system, and a suggestion that Daschle snuck this in deliberately because of his experiences with Clinton’s health care fiasco, and away we go.

So, is it nonsense? Continue reading Daschle’s revenge?

Just a reminder: Geithner’s tax problem wasn’t less* than Daschle’s.

He was merely first in the queue:

Despite the fact that Geithner sailed through the confirmation process—while Daschle went up in flames—Geithner’s tax troubles were actually far more egregious. People tend to give Geithner a pass, because the overall amount he owed was smaller and it just involved Social Security and Medicare, rather than income tax. But Geithner actually acknowledged years ago that he owed the taxes—but didn’t pay them until he was nominated for the Treasury job. That hardly counts as a mistake.

Daschle, for his part, failed to count as income the value of a car and driver he received from a New York private-equity firm, InterMedia Advisors, during 2005-2007. He also overstated charitable contributions and understated income from InterMedia, which paid him $1 million a year. Daschle filed amended tax returns last month reporting $128,203 in additional taxes and $11,964 in interest. The revised tax returns were submitted after President Obama announced that he intended to nominate Daschle to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

Geithner’s situation was nonetheless a bigger ethical lapse. As an employee of the International Monetary Fund in 2001 and later years, Geithner was responsible for sending a check to the IRS to cover his own payroll taxes. He didn’t do so. What he did do was submit a request to the IMF for reimbursement of those taxes. And he collected.

Continue reading Just a reminder: Geithner’s tax problem wasn’t less* than Daschle’s.

No, really, Obama DIDN’T ask any of his nominees about their taxes.

I think that Jake Tapper isn’t going to be getting a Christmas card from the Obama administration. Ever.

ABC News has obtained the Senate Finance Committee Report on Tom Daschle’s nomination to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which indicates that Daschle’s tax problems were even more substantial than earlier reported.

The report indicates that Daschle’s failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns.

Mr. Daschle also didn’t report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.

Via AoSHQ, and let me just add this: I expect to see Tom Daschle lay hands upon a leper at his confirmation hearing and heal that man of his affliction. Because it’s going to take about that much of a mitigating factor to make this pick for HHS palatable.

Moe Lane

PS: Does any Democratic politician pay his or her taxes properly, and on time? Do any of them know how to, even? It’s a heck of a thing to ask, but circumstances kind of require it right now.

Crossposted at RedState.