Hillary Clinton, designated Lightning Rod Du Obacracy, was supposed to provide cover for all the other Obacrats having confirmation hearings this week by deflecting the wrath of the Mean Ol’ Republicans and any random remaining Democratic contrarians who might be looking for a way to tarnish the Obamessiah by seriously questioning their credentials. By all reports, Clinton held up her end of the bargain admirably, though her fellow Senate members, by and large, showed her the love she’s due. Sure, there were some “tough” questions about the Clinton Foundation for show, but no really tense moments; nothing she couldn’t handle. But, the dogs did find a scent to sniff, coming from a guy whose confirmation hearings are two days away. According to Politico, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary-designate, has some issues about his personal taxes to ’splain:
Senators gathered Tuesday in an emergency meeting discussing the fate of Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner, who is under fire after a report that he neglected to pay payroll taxes for himself and employed a housekeeper whose immigration status had expired
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) raised questions today about the immigration status of the housekeeper, and is also questioning why Geithner did not pay Social Security and Medicare taxes when he worked at the International Monetary Fund, The Wall Street Journal first reported this afternoon.
The Senate Finance Committee has known about Geithner’s tax problems since Dec. 5, but the details are just being made public now, Senate aides said. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus says Geithner made a “serious mistake” but adds that the allegations are not enough to “disqualify” Geithner from consideration.
Since the Finance Committee has known about these problems for over a month, the obvious question is, why was the information withheld until now? The equally obvious answer, of course, is that with the controversy surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, and the brewing scandal swirling around New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s own “pay-to-play” allegations, it just never seemed like a good time. Then again, to be fair, it’s not like a Treasury Secretary who doesn’t pay his own taxes is any more of a big deal than, oh, say, a Secretary of State who likes to fight, or an Education Secretary whose kids couldn’t read, or a homeless Housing and Urban Development guy would be, right? Besides, it’s not like getting out in front of a controversy is ever really a smart thing to do, is it? After all, little problems with domestic help have never bothered anybody before. A candidate for Attorney General who has legal issues might have a lot more ’splainin’ to do.
Hillary proved to the committee and the nation that she is on par with anyone in the field of foreign relations knowledge, and far above many who have held this position before. When John Kerry questioned her I was expecting him to give her a hard time, but I think he realized that if he tried he would only make a fool of himself. Everyone knew that he wanted the position for himself and any smart a## questions would have looked like sour grapes.
Whether you like her or not, this is one smart and capable woman and Obama is very fortunate that she accepted his offer. She makes up for some of the other incompetant people he has appointed.
It will be interesting to see if Timothy Geithner can handle himself half as well.
Timothy Geithner should be toast, or everybody else who was maligned for the same things should get an apology and back pay. Otherwise, the whole process has no integrity.