Not since President Barack Obama’s “Pastor Pickin’ Problems” have I seen so much hubbub and dust up over the bevy of political appointees for whom April 15th is just another day in the spring.
First Timothy Geitner had his tax troubles (although got “Grandfathered in” as the first one to eff up), then New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had to drop out because of some ethic investigations back on the ranch, then NancyKillefer withdrew her name as Chief White House Performance Officer due to her tax troubles. And now, most recently, former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschel dropped out of the running for Health and Human Services Secretary after his failure to pay taxes on his driver were revealed (and The New York Times put out a blistering story on his tax woes).
This is all the more amazing considering you had to get through an “exhaustive,” billion page vetting process that asked of an arm, leg and possibly, your first born, (but with a “Rumpelstiltskin” escape clause for Geitner).
But where Daschel gets all weepy and closes a door on the second act in his political career, the Governmental Gods open a window for a black state governor possibly facing a tough re-election.
No, not Playboy Paterson of New York State, but Obama BFF Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, of whom the Clintons used to charge Obama, quite pathetically, of “Great Speech Plagiarism,” as both repeated similar themes and rhetoric in their campaign speeches.
Deval, who is considering taxing just about everything from gasoline to sugar to adding highway tolls on the turnpike, is in a bit of an unpopularity pickle right now. Unemployment is up. Everyone in Massachusetts is bitching at him all the time. So folks are thinking, “Does the D-Man want a change in scenery? Like the kind with cherry blossoms in the spring time and lobbyists on every corner?”
