Tom Daschle withdraws: 'Distraction'

Taxless Tom was tenacious and tactless and his nomination is now trash.
We need a quality appointment for this important position. I would hope they tap former Lousiana Governor Blanco or better yet I hear the Mayor of Detroit is out of jail and available.

Good RIDDANCE!

Does he get his $140,167. back?

Blago is free

how about me i don't owe taxes and i'm a full fledged american.oh darn i forgot i only made 50 g last year,,,,

I gotta feevah, and the only prescription is more hope-n-change.

Way to go B. Hussein Obama! You're off to a fantastic start.

HA HA HA Change we can believe in!!!!! Hank Blaustein: Good Question!!!

At this time in America all of our leaders must be of the highest ethical standards. Missouri State Senate President Pro Tem Charles Shields is such a man - and he is an expert on health care and human services. ............

http://thefiresidepost.com/2009/02/03/missouri-state-senator-charles-shields-for-hhs/

I believe that someone will be campaigning for the job on Letterman tonight.

I am getting the strong feeling that our elected politicians are of the belief they are above the law and better then the common American citizen.

Hellooo? Rahm? Axelrod?? Brainiacs? Whizkids? New brooms? Anyone home? That's V-E-T-T-I-N-G. It's what you have to do before you can have C-H-A-N-G-E. Sheesh!

Why isn't he off to jail?

Shouldn't he go to jail for tax evasion?

Where's billr?

Billy - you got kool-aid induced story to tell us about this one?

In light of the tax evasion problems, more concerning is the "No Lobbyists in my White House" Obama flip flop. Mr. Daschle has been lobbying on behalf of the Health Care Industry and it's Mega-Rich Corporations, bringing in a reporte $5.2 MILLION in the last two to three years.

Now, here we have a lobyists (I'm not really a Registered Lobbyist Barry, I just get paid by the Health Care Industry to talk to them about policy and legislation) who can't seperate his Multi-Million dollar income from his official duties as proposed by Obama.

In the immortal words of Obama's political mentor and Chicago buddy, Blago the Destroyer, "What was he thinking?" Does this mean that Blago can't be considered for a high paying federal job?

I liked him and think that it's sad this all happened.

Do you idiots now see the change that the clown obama is giving us. I'm sure the media will harp on this as much as they did on every move that President Bush made. NOT!

That is a lot of taxes to forget to pay. He did the right thing to withdraw his name from consideration.

Standard operating procedure for DC politicians: Cheat on your taxes until you get nominated for something important. Geithner, Daschle, Killefer... Who's next?

Why are these crooks not in JAIL?

It appears that Tom Daschle is only a typical honest democrat with the highest of morals and integrity. What's the big deal?

Right here springy.......I believe this a good move by Daschle. While mistakes can be made, when there is blood in the water, it is better not to swim. Lets' take this a step further and review all tax returns for all government officials and any found to have made mistakes....remove them.

Borked! It speaks volumes that Daschle didn't think his former senate colleagues would give him a pass like they did to Geithner. Must have made some enemies in that august body.

"I liked him and think that it's sad this all happened.

Posted by: Chicagogirl | February 3, 2009 2:05 PM " Sad that the people now know the truth about Daschle's lies and hypocrisy?

This is not about properly vetting a potential candidate.

It's about a public figure who made hundreds of thousands of dollars, lobbying the government, yet did not have the common sense to wrap up his tax affairs on a timely and honest basis.

Don't tell me "I thought my accountant was working on." At this level of taxation, you need to have some cash ready to pay the bill. And any good accountant will have this answer in a matter of weeks, not 6-8 months.

If you cannot manage tax situation measured in the hundreds of thousands of doallars, with professional tax advice, I question your ability to manage a budget measured in billions.

It's a matter of honesty and competence.

Right here springy.......I believe this a good move by Daschle. While mistakes can be made, when there is blood in the water, it is better not to swim. Lets' take this a step further and review all tax returns for all government officials and any found to have made mistakes....remove them.

Posted by: bill r. | February 3, 2009 2:27 PM

Mistakes are one thing- intentional ignorance is another...Daschle knew he should have been reporting the "gift from a friend" - he chose to evade paying taxes until he knew he might be nominated for something.

two words- Flat Tax- problem solved.

Just when I was going to change my party affiliation from Independent to Democrat so I didn't have to pay taxes and all I had to do was apologize when I got caught..

They should recall Geithner too, he's another liar.

But let's still give him a bail out while we have all of this free money sitting around !. Maybe instead of paying the IRS he'll sponsor the Yankees or Mets!

"Tom made a mistake, which he has openly acknowledged. He has not excused it, nor do I. But that mistake and this decision cannot diminish the many contributions Tom has made to this country."

WHAT CONTRIBUTIONS, NOT PAYING TAXES, WHAT A SCUMBAG, RAISE OUR TAXES, AND NOT PAY YOUR OWN...

Well, that was an expensive little exercise for Mr Daschle. In the end, I think it was the little red glasses that got him.

"Lets' take this a step further and review all tax returns for all government officials and any found to have made mistakes....remove them.

Posted by: bill r. | February 3, 2009 2:27 PM"
Agreed, Hussein! First stop, tax cheat Charlie Rangel and the vacation properties he never paid taxes on. After that let's move on to tax cheat senate candidate Al Franken who says he's already a senator but kept his primary residence in New York and didn't pay taxes there for two years. After that we'll examine the taxe situation of Senator Christopher Dodd who recently refinancing sweetheard mortgages from subprime lender Countrywide Mortgage. The mortgages were secured for him by close, personal friend and then Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozillo.
Throw all these bums out!

Yah baby! That's what I call "change"!

The YouTube campaigning ad is a great find. Time have changed, I don't really blame him for having a chauffeur. Who doesn't upgrade when the means allow it?

Mistakes are one thing- intentional ignorance is another...Daschle knew he should have been reporting the "gift from a friend" - he chose to evade paying taxes until he knew he might be nominated for something.

two words- Flat Tax- problem solved.

Posted by: heartburn | February 3, 2009 3:16 PM

I can not say whether they were intentional or not. But I will say the way taxes are figured are obsurd. I used to do our own taxes back in the day, but as we made more over the years, there was no way I was able to keep up with changes and needed to hire an accountant. There are loopholes that are taken advantage of and somehow that is considered legal......Beyond me (above my paygrade).

Who is the idiot that wanted to hire him?

Well Jeff, aside from Daschle's tax error, he and his wife had a lot of other conflicts of interest and sleaze problems that were being pointed out by liberal bloggers such as Glenn Greenwald; it was all adding up to...... a distraction and more.

"During a briefing filled with questions about Tom Daschle's decision to withdraw from consideration to be Health and Human Services secretary, Gibbs pointed to experts who describe the administration's ethics rules as the strongest in history.

He also said those experts recognized that Obama would need to make exceptions to his pledge to run an administration free of former lobbyists."

Pass the cool aid kids. Just remmeber if you were experts you would know better but we is just the dummies that votesd thhe savior in. Thank god he gots a big brain.

At least he finally resigned. Timothy Geitner did not and blamed it all as an "accident" that even though he was aware of it for years, only made good on it after the appointment.

Biggest problem is, he is in charge of the economic team. Don't you have to understand taxes a little bit for that job?

What's with Obama appointing only criminals and those with a "conflict of interest"? Bill Richardson, Eric Holder, William Lynn... he sure can pick 'em. I would definitely call this C H A N G E as republicans wouldn't even try to get away with this kind of crap!

The commentators who call Daschle a scumbag, a cheater, and worse are not only disrespectful, they are wrong.Daschle is an honorable person. I am disapponted that he got into this predicament and that he has withdrawn, but I think that it was the best move for him.

Sincerely

RMK, akron

Throw all these bums out!

Posted by: Jeff | February 3, 2009 3:27 PM

That's right jeff all R or D. And lets investigate everything......intell leading up to the war.....Cheney and Haliburton.....everything ..........agreed!

Good,but the most disgusting thing of all was the President was going to back him in this what is that all about it was everyone else who was saying he was a cheat ,these are the changes he's bringing crooked politicians! Everyday there's a scandal with this President!

These recent discoveries of tax evaders shines a brighter light on our elected officials.

We should nominate all of the the other 500+ Reps and Senators for higher offices just to run them through the vetting process.

The back taxes and penalty fees could go a long way to paying down the deficit.

It is reprehensible that people with salaries paid from tax dollars are skipping out on paying taxes.

Everything to Obama is a "distraction." How about another "D?" Such as DISHONEST. Obama had better check Hillary's tax returns. Did she count her government provided limo as incomed? Did she receive money from the zillions that were donated by foreign countries to the Clinton "Foundation?" The biggest shoe is yet to drop and that will be the Clintons' conflict of interest in foreign policy.

Flo, let's also not forget that he made hundreds of thousands from "speaking fees" to companies such as America's Health Insurance Plans. I honestly wonder if Daschle wasn't being brought in to quash any change in our broken healthcare system rather than lead said change. Story is from Columbia Journalism Review.
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/mr_daschle_and_his_speaking_fe.php

No wonder the Democrats are not big on tax relief, they already have their version. Just don't bother to pay !

I think this is a true sign of change from the Obama camp, he has shown us that all these Washington politicians are crooked. Do you really think that the three tax evaders that surfaced are the only ones? How do we fix our nation's problems when the people we elect are as bad as the CEO's that blew all that bailout money. God help us!!!!

"leading up to the war.....Cheney and Haliburton.....everything ..........agreed!

Posted by: bill r. | February 3, 2009 4:01 PM"
Cheney's already gone. You're going to have to change your broken record (finally!), Hussein. It's your culture of corruption that's in charge now.

I wonder if this is the same chauffeur that Eddie Curry had? With Daschle's red glasses it makes ya wonder.

Paulo

There is more to this story than tax evasion. Thanks Barry for bringing "change we can see through" to Washington". Too bad Marc Rich pardoner, Eric Hoser got confirmed. Good thing Barry is out of positions, he's almost out of tax cheats.

I'm now beginning to believe that I wasted my vote on "change you can believe in" Obama.

Perhaps we WOULD have been better off with McCain and Palin, because at least, we didn't have the false promises that we're getting from Obama and his crew.

Looks like we've been snookered!

I agree with everyone else that ask's, why is'nt this tax CHEAT in jail or on trail like any citizen would be ?

I was about to rant, rave, and gloat over the latest abomination (notice I avoid the obviously tempting play on words, there?) of a hiring decision, but then I took a moment to read the comments left by others. I'm gratified that so many may be, although sadly too late, realizing what 52 million people unfortunately did to this country in November of '08. As one of the 48 million people who voted for the other guy, the only thing surprising about this is that the Obama those 52 million people refused to see is coming home to roost a lot faster than even I thought. As a former Illinoisan, perhaps we'll get the chance to take our practice with Blagojevich to a higher level. Now THERE'S hope the country can believe in!

Posted by: bill r. | February 3, 2009 2:27 PM

Right here springy.......I believe this a good move by Daschle. While mistakes can be made, when there is blood in the water, it is better not to swim. Lets' take this a step further and review all tax returns for all government officials and any found to have made mistakes....remove them.
------------
Great idea! As they tumble from the top of the political food chain, we may find that the only ones who have never cheated or made an honest mistake on their tax returns are the chronically unemployed. Now THAT would be change: no D.C. insiders, and a huge number of people off the unemployment roll. Hmmm.

Wow. First month in office, and already appointing liars and tax cheats, who, if they were ordinary citizens, and not above the law, would be in a heap of trouble right now.
"Change we can believe in"? Yes Mr. President......you have been exposed as just more of the same.
You have deliberately appointed a dishonest, lying, cheating, tax evader to be in charge of our finances. Way to go.
The sign of a true leader is to admit when he/she is wrong, and to fix their mistakes......not just go along with them. Get rid of your buddy Tim. Show us yoyr campaign was not ALL a pack of lies.

Blago, Dashle, Geithner, Killeter...throw a blanket over all of them..all a bunch of con-artists...I'm sure that Kerry, Cheney as well as others can fit in there also. Only us poor working slobs have to pay all the taxes they levy upon us. Those phonies with their tax-paid expense accounts can get by with appologies. I wonder if Dashle and Geithner were charged the penality of 1/2% daily on unpaid taxes......bet against it my friends...because we'll never know.

It's too bad. He's a smart man who knows a lot about the health care industry - as evidenced by the fact that private industry has been willing to pay him millions for his knowledge. Hiring him would have been a bargain. I can imagine that the taxes in his bracket, when you add up speaking fees and various other forms of income, are pretty complex, so I would tend to cut him some slack for overlooking accepting a ride from a friend, since he's seemed to have covered everything else. It's sad though, that in reading the comments posted here, it seems so many can't wait to condemn.

What a great bunch of comments! There is "real" hope!

Barry! Is this what you meant by Change? Putting Red-Rimmed Tom in as HHS Sec. is a joke.

No wonder Democrats love taxes... they don't feel like they should pay them.