Daschle And Bale: Portraits In Progressivism

As Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle was an eloquent if sometimes harsh critic of President Bush. He is beloved of liberals and progressives. He got a free car and driver from a fat cat when he was a former senator and didn't think to report it on his income taxes because, he said, he was used to people picking him up and driving him around.

Actor Christian Bale is a supporter of Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund who became a vegetarian at six after reading Charlotte's Web and realizing that meat came from animals. When a distinguished director of photography got in his line of sight on a movie set, he screamed at him for three minutes in a degrading, threatening way, refusing to accept the man's mumbled apology and acting for all the world like someone who knew he wouldn't be held accountable for his atrocious abuse of another human being.

So what makes the world go 'round: Power and money, or principle? What tells us more about a person: Opinions or actions?

Frontiers Of Ethics

The AP reveals the new standard in Washington:

Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, noted the Geithner nomination in saying she suspected tax problems would not prevent Daschle from becoming the next health secretary.

"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.

Meanwhile the New York Times reports that Sen. Kennedy is making calls in support of Sen. Daschle; a confident President Obama so far is not. Perhaps the tide is turning in his favor after thie HHS nominees obviously heartfelt apology.

The Times also gives details about the deduction he took for a personal gift to a wounded Iraqi war veteran even though contributions to individuals are never deductible. Again, you'd think the celebrated tax expert would have known that. But yesterday Hugh Hewitt argued on his radio program that rich people shouldn't be judged too harshly when they get in trouble about taxes since their finances are more complicated that those of regular people, requiring them to trust tax advisers who can make honest mistakes. Perhaps more to the point, Hugh is also concerned that instead of Daschle we might get Ira Magaziner or Michael Moore working on health care policy.

Does Daschle deserves a pass? Perhaps, unless we learn something new. Still, it's hard to believe how anyone, rich or poor, could accept livery services for three years without wondering just once who was paying for them and whether he or she had a tax liability as a result. If nothing else, the rocky start of these two Cabinet members will encourage the gentry to pay a little more attention to their 1040s and the provenance of the Lincoln Town Car that oils into the porte-cochere every morning.

Strange Hospital Bedfellows

Self-styled progressive Mimi Kennedy wants Sen. Daschle to withdraw because he's not radical enough on health care policy. Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt thinks he should be confirmed because, Hewitt believes, his tax error was inadvertent and otherwise we could end up with someone more radical.

You Going To Eat That Toast?

My "New Nixon" colleague Frank Gannon poses a question that nobody else seems to be asking: Why did Tom Daschle wait until June 2008 to think about getting right with the tax man? Never fear: Frank answers, too.

Let Him Twist Slowly, Slowly In The Wind

New York Times:

Republican senators largely held their fire against former Senator Tom Daschle on Sunday, saying that while they questioned how he made a $128,000 mistake on his taxes, they were not yet prepared to vote against his nomination as health secretary.

Meanwhile the President's people made sure every knew Sen. Daschle had known about the problem in June but didn't tell them until after his nomination.

How do you like your toast?

Act Stupidly, And Serve In The Cabinet

Former Senator Tom Daschle, paid $2 million to help a fat cat, also got free use of a car and driver worth $128,000 over three years but didn't tell the IRS until President Obama tapped him as secretary of health and human services. He also failed to declare $83,000 in consulting income and claimed too many charitable gifts. On TV last week, Watergate reporter Bob Woodward intimated that there was another tax scandal coming for Obama. Presumably this is it. Why didn't Woodward just report it instead of teasing viewers? In any event, referring to the first one, the New York Times reports this morning:

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Daschle’s tax problems would derail his nomination. The confirmation of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner was held up only briefly after the disclosure that he had failed to pay more than $34,000 in taxes owed to the federal government.

Friends in the administration say Daschle made "a stupid mistake" but shouldn't be penalized, since he told the Senate about it himself -- the old "turn yourself in, son, it'll go easier on you" rule. At least, that's what they always say. However the word has gotten out, tax scandals are generally expected to be devastating for Republicans, not to mention for those such as you and me who are not needed in the Cabinet.

Tax scandals have inconvenienced Democrats as well, though in other ways. When an accountant stupidly backdated the deed of President Nixon's tax-deductible gift of his pre-Presidential papers, it ended up wasting a lot of the House Judiciary Committee's valuable time during the 1974 impeachment hearings. It was after the tax story broke that President Nixon, deeply wounded by the charge of personal financial impropriety, made the famous declaration of his innocence to a group of editors in Orlando, Florida in November 1973.

But in these anxious times, we don't want hardworking politicians to have to say, "I am not a crook." We want them to be able to say, "I am in the Cabinet." My New Nixon colleague Frank Gannon sees it strictly in terms of the old partisan double standard and Democrats' knack for raising taxes without, as in these notable cases, paying them. Hasn't he heard that we've evolved beyond that kind of divisive rhetoric? We're in a era of new thinking and ideas.

As a matter of fact, the Times is definitely onto something by suggesting the "Cabinet penalty box" approach. Geithner's stupid mistake cost us $34,000, so his nomination was held up "only briefly." What was it, a week? For riding around in a free car for three years stupidly failing to realize it was taxable income, Daschle boosted the deficit at almost four times' Geithner's rate, so he should sit out for at least a month. With the deficit already running over a trillion a year, it might be the best thing that could happen for health care policy. By the same token, since Obama appears to be flirting with protectionism, he may decide to delay choosing a trade representative for another two or three months, so he should find someone for that job who's stupidly cheated us out of half a million or so.