In today’s news, we are looking at more Obama appointees.  Today’s CNN headline is about his nominee for the US trade representative.  Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk got the nod.  He has something in common with several other Obama nominees, he can’t seem to figure out how to pay his taxes correctly.

Kirk’s tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007 were reviewed by the Senate Finance Committee as part of the vetting process, according to a report released by the committee Monday.

The committee found that Kirk failed to report as income $37,750 in honoraria collected for 16 speaking engagements at Austin College over those three years. One year, he deducted honoraria from four events as charitable donations though he hadn’t reported them as income, according to the committee report.

He also deducted too much for the cost of tickets to see the NBA Mavericks, reporting the entire $17,382 as business expenses, the report says.

Kirk has agreed to pay the $9,975 he owes from amended returns, according to the report.

“The mayor is working with the Finance Committee on a few minor issues,” White House spokesman Ben Labolt said, adding that the “nomination is on track.”

Tax evasion is not only considered a “minor issue” with Obama, it as apparently a requirement:

• Tom Daschle failed to pay nearly $100,000.  He subsequently dropped out.  Obama later said he “screwed up” with Daschle.  Not sure what his explanation for Kirk will be.
• Tim Geithner is my personal favorite.  The guy expected to figure out our tax code couldn’t figure out how to use TurboTax.  He was strongly endorsed by Obama and subsequently confirmed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  Although Obama “screwed up” on Daschle, Geithner’s exact same issue, although not as big, is OK.
• Nancy Killefer dropped out as well after it was revealed she failed to pay her taxes.  Obama hasn’t indicated he “screwed up” with her.

Now, the situation seems to be that in order to be in charge of something important, you have to have violated a law in regards to what it is that you’re overseeing.  So, true to form, we get Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services ( the position Tom Daschle gave up on ):

The former inspector general of the Kansas Health Policy Authority says agency managers applied pressure to alter an audit report, restricted access to legal advice and threatened to fire her for meeting independently with legislators.

As governor, she had a bit of a mess with, you guessed it, health care administration.  So, it just seems a natural fit she should join the Obama team overseeing Health and Human Services.  However, her strong desire to raise taxes on everyone in the state of Kansas I’m sure appealed to Obama.

And, of course, we can’t forget Bill Richardson, Obama’s initial choice for commerce secretary.  He dropped out when it was revealed he was under federal investigation for pay to play ( A nicer word for taking bribes. )

And, of course, we can never forget Hillary Clinton.  I’m sure we’d know more about her dealings if so many people weren’t dead now.

I’m still waiting for that Rahm Emanuel (  Chief of Staff ) / Rod Blagojevich / Roland Burris saga to play out.

There ya go folks, the change you can believe in.

Nancy Pelosi’s culture of corruption is thriving quite well.  Apparently her problem with Bush was he didn’t support it enough.

Tags: bill-richardson, blago, Blagojevich, cabinet, culture of corruption, Ethics, evasion, governor, harry reid, health and human services, hillary clinton, illinois, kansas, kansas health policy authority, kathleen sebelius, nancy killefer, nancy pelosi, obama, rahm emanuel, roland burris, ron kirk, taxes, tim geithner, tom daschle, whitewater