Do we really have to do this? Shall I point out the legions of crooked scum George W. Bush tried to appoint?

quote:

Bush Political Appointees: Criminals and Incompetents Glorified (Part II) By Rawlein Soberano In less than four weeks, the Bush administration will be history. Like Hurricane Katrina, it left along its wake some of the bitterest memories that Americans will remember on the level of the Great Depression of 1929 for the sufferings it caused the American people. At first glance, it is not difficult to figure out why and how did this come about. If those appointees can be described in one line—they are the glorification of criminality and incompetence. “Nemo dat quod non habet.” (Nobody can give what he doesn’t have!) That was another reason for the failure of the administration. You cannot run a successful organization when the players are short of talent and/or experience. They were big talkers who thought the “good life” was going to be around indefinitely; they acted like they were above the law and would never get caught or discovered. Many were convicted, jailed, fined or had to do community service. All were disgraced; up on a pedestal one day and down in the gutter the next. Their actions tarnished the administration and the Republican Party and drove away many Republicans or killed their enthusiasm to remain active after they felt betrayed. They sent a message of unstoppable greed, rugged individualism of each man for himself, shameful selfishness of “give me, give me” culture but reluctant to pay their fair share of taxes for public services received, and demonization of social conscience and civic responsibility. For our purposes, they will be classified into 3 groups: a) indicted/ convicted/pled guilty; b) resigned due to investigation, pending investigation or allegations of impropriety; c) nomination failed due to scandal. The list does not include the convicted or resigned GOP lawmakers, like Bob Ney of OH, Randy “Duke” Cunningham of CA, Mark Foley of FL, Larry Craig of ID, and Vito Fosella of NY. It covers only those who were appointed. Their boss (GWB) and their own performance have earned them the moniker of loser, stupid, liar, crooked or all of the above. Among this first group (indicted, convicted or pled guilty), we have Eric Andell, Deputy Undersecretary of Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools at the White House; Claude Allen, Asst. to Pres for Domestic Policy; Brian Doyle, Deputy Press secretary at DHS; Steven Griles, Deputy Secretary at DOI; John T. Korsmo, chair of Federal Housing Finance Board; Scooter Libby, chief of staff to VP Cheney; David Safavian, head of Office of Federal Procurement Policy at OMB; Robert Stein, comptroller of Coalition Provisional Authority in al-Hillah, Iraq; Roger Stilwell, Desk Officer at DOI; Lester Crawford, FDA Commissioner; Felipe Sixto, Special Asst. to President for intergovernmental affairs. In the second group (resigned due to investigation, pending investigation, or allegations of impropriety), we have Philip Conery, chief of staff, White House counsel on Environmental Quality; George Deutch, press aide at NASA; Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, 3rd highest official at CIA; Alberto Gonzales, Attorney-General; Monica Goodling (mentioned in Part I); Michele Larson Korsmo, deputy chief of staff at DOI; Howard “Cookie” Krongard, State IG; Julie MacDonald (mentioned in Part I); Paul McNulty, deputy to Alberto Gonzales; Richard Perle, chair of Defense Policy Board; Susan Ralston, Asst. to Karl Rove; Janet Rehnquist IG at HHS; James Roche, secretary of Air Force; Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales; Joseph Schmitz, IG DOD; Bradley Schlognan, DOJ; Thomas Scully, administrator of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services; David Smith, Deputy Asst. Secretary for fish, wildlife & parks at DOI, John Tanner, chief of Voting Rights Section at DOJ; Sara Taylor, Deputy Asst. to President & Director of Political Affairs at White House; Ken Tomlinson, Board chair, Corporation of Public Broadcasting; Lurita Doan, GSA administrator; Alphonso Jackson, HUD secretary; Stewart Bowen, IG for Iraq Reconstruction; Carl Truscott, Director of ATF; and Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary at DOD and World Bank president. Among the third group (nomination failed due to scandal), we have the following—Linda Chavez, nominated to be secretary of Labor but withdrew her name in Jan.’01; Timothy Flanigan, nominated for Deputy Attorney-General but withdrew in Oct. ’05; Bernard Kerik, named secretary of DHS, withdrew his name amidst a host of corruption allegations; William Mercer, Assoc. Deputy Attorney-General and US Attorney of MT withdrew his name from consideration to #3 job at DOJ; and Hans von Spakovsky, commissioner at FEC, nomination failed from work at DOJ to suppress minority voter turnout. This is not the first chain of scandals that afflicted a Republican administration. From Richard Nixon and the break-in into the DNC at the Watergate hotel which ultimately resulted in the resignation of the president, to Ronald Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandals, saying one thing and doing another, which almost brought the president down as well, and this time around another American president’s reputation is tarnished by the malfeasance of his political appointees. Most of them were stationed in 4 agencies, e.g., White House, DOJ, DOI and DOD. When investigations focused on them, they either resigned or stepped down, but many did not face jail time for what they did. If they did a better job in their investigation to include, Energy, Treasury, MBDA, USDA, State, GSA, DOT, FDA, DOL, to mention some of them, there would have been more convictions or resignations. RGS/AABR (12-30-08)

SOURCE

So please, I think Obama's accomplished at least some change in that we aren't hearing about dozens of crooks, only a handful, which is to be expected given a whole lot of politicians are probably not the most moral people at all.

2 wrongs don't make a right, and god damn if I can't stand Tom Daschle. I was really hoping he had faded into obscurity prior to his appointment--a damn shame.

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka 2 wrongs don't make a right, and god damn if I can't stand Tom Daschle. I was really hoping he had faded into obscurity prior to his appointment--a damn shame.

Exactly. To Alex's point, the days of pointing the finger at Bush are over. Accountability is squarely on the Dem's shoulders now. Whorish spending bills and tax cheat appointees certainly isn't change... at least for the good. Looks like the ride may be a bit bumpier than expected for the Messiah. He shouldda vetted these mo-fo's better.

I really don't like Daschle.


With that out of the way, it's great to see everyone batting for accountability and transparency, I just wonder where the fuck all of you have been the last 8 years...

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Originally posted by ******** Seplling don't demonstrate intelligence and educatoin - knowing does.

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Originally posted by Clovis I really don't like Daschle. With that out of the way, it's great to see everyone batting for accountability and transparency, I just wonder where the fuck all of you have been the last 8 years...

werd. I've only been posting on TA for about 9 months, but believe me man, what Bush started doing around late 2004 into 2005 was the beginning of the end for my support. What made it so disheartening was that it was going completely against the values that the GOP stood for and what got him elected. Accountability was also lost. This quote from him in November pretty much sums it up (on why he was supporting a hugh bailout) as to how far he had lost his way from his conservative roots: "I'm going against free market principles to save the free market."

I don't wish him ill because I think he's a decent man... I just hope he disappears for a while and doesn't do anything else to fuck up the GOP.

For what it's worth:

quote:

The Finance Committee said he failed to report consulting income of $83,333 on his 2007 tax return and overstated the deductions to which he was entitled for charitable contributions from 2005 to 2007. In his amended tax returns, he reduced the deductions by $14,963. Under his consulting arrangement with InterMedia, the report said, Mr. Daschle received $1 million a year, or $83,333 a month. The payment to Mr. Daschle for May 2007 was omitted from the annual statement of income sent to him by InterMedia. Ms. Backus said the omission resulted from “a clerical error by InterMedia.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/u...le.html?_r=1&hp

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haha! This keeps getting better. Apparently, Daschle can't even use the Geithner "I’m so stupid" excuse, as ABC also discovers that he flat out failed to report direct income:

quote:

The report indicates that Daschle's failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns. Mr. Daschle also didn't report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.

Plus, Daschle claimed almost $15,000 in charitable donations over three years to organizations that don't qualify for the deduction. How many Americans make so much money that they could forget about $83,000 of it in a year?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalp...daschle-ta.html

lol... you must have ESP Lebez... I didn't see your post about the same thing a minute before mine went up.

quote:

Originally posted by The17sss How many Americans make so much money that they could forget about $83,000 of it in a year?

See above.

Also, doesn't he deserve a tax cut?

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I agree with The17sss on this one, this guy's gotta go. I can understand a little wink and nod to Hillary after the primaries and everything, but they shoulda done some basic digging on Daschle before giving him the position.

In addition to him being a tax cheat, his record as a speaker for the health care industry which runs counter to what the Democrats are trying to accomplish with healthcare should have been a giant red flag for Obama:

quote:

Daschle made nearly $5.3 million in the last two years, records released Friday show, including $220,000 he received for giving speeches, many of them to outfits that stand to gain or lose millions of dollars from the work he would do once confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services. For instance, the Health Industry Distributors Association plunked down $14,000 to land the former Senate Democratic leader in March 2008. The association, which represents medical products distributors, boasts on its website that Daschle met with it after he was nominated to discuss "the impact an Obama administration will have on the industry." This week, the group began openly lobbying him, sending him a letter urging him to rescind a rule requiring competitive bidding of Medicare contracts. Another organization, America’s Health Insurance Plans, paid $20,000 for a Daschle speaking appearance in February 2007. It represents health insurance companies, which under Obama’s plan would be barred from denying coverage on the basis of health or age. There was a $12,000 talk to GE Healthcare in August, a $20,000 lecture in January to Premier, Inc., a health care consulting firm, and a pair of $18,000 speeches this year to different hospital systems, among other paid appearances before health care groups. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/u...daschle.html?hp

The guy was a slimy turd during the primaries and drove me nuts. The sooner Obama cuts ties with him the better.

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Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...

Yeah, HHS never really made sense to me. Honestly, I thought that office had Hillary's name on it. I wouldn't mind seeing him go either.

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