Tom Daschle - Corruption We Can Believe In

It's a new era of cooperation between The New York Times and the Democrat Party. So often almost indistinguishable over the past 40 years, the two now appear to be as one, with the Times dutifully spinning Democrat propaganda without comment. Take this article from the Jan. 31st Times, reprinted in the Chronicle: "Daschle didn't pay $140,000 in taxes". Seems one of Daschle's patrons paid him over $2 million in consulting fees and transportation over 3 years and Daschle failed to pay taxes totaling $140,000.

The article is flush with small and not-so-small revelations that would typically result in a Republican being excluded from consideration for a cabinet post, if not immediately subject to closer scrutiny by a Federal prosecutor:

- All this income was provided to Daschle by "prominent businessman and Democrat fundraiser Leo Hindery, Jr....who founded a private equity firm in 2005", and that "Daschle was chairman of the advisory board" and a "consultant". Two million in three years without having an actual job description, and a 'private equity' firm to boot? What services did Daschle render for Hindery while he was a Senator?

- Towards the end of the article: "Hindery and family members have contributed......$52,000 to Daschle from 1997 to 2004". Since Senate campaign contributions are limited to $2,400 per election, that money could only have gone against his losing 2004 campaign. That means that $52 thousand was a minimum of 22 family members who made legal contributions. Shades of Al Gore picking up checks from Buddhist Monks. How many people are there in Hindery's family anyway? And does he know that substituting the names of other family members to hide donations is illegal?

- Dropped every so delicately into the middle of the article was this beauty: "A Senate aide said Daschle also had a tax issue that involved charitable contributions". In Plain English: Daschle took larger deductions for charitable contributions than he was allowed. This will be a rerun of Bill and Hillary Clinton declaring Slick Willy's soiled underwear to have a monetary value of $10 each, and that was in 1988 dollars. What was Daschle overvaluing, and by how much?

- Two paragraphs later: "Administration officials said Daschle should not be penalized because......he realized in June 2008 that he might have a tax problem". So, Daschle under-reported his income from April 2006 to June of 2008, then stonewalled on the issue for an additional seven months, and the conclusion we're supposed to draw is that this actually makes him an upright citizen? Doesn't this actually show more culpability?

- The $140,000 of unpaid taxes was "mostly for free use of a car and driver", which had a monetary value of "$182,520". $140,000 in taxes on $182,520 of compensation? This might have been a typo, or it might have been something else. Either way, if this is what the Obama Administration is reporting to The New York Times, and The New York Times is regurgitating it whole, either somebody's corrupt, or somebody's a liar.

Another unanswered question is: where is the outrage over the compensation provided by patron and employer Leo Hindery? If he awarded Daschle $182,520 in car expenses over three years as a business expense, that's $5,070 per month. Is there no limit - legal or ethical - to what can be deducted from one's corporate tax bill for employee reimbursable transportation?

Talk about blood in the water. What could have so neutered the Investigative Reporter in Robert Pear of the N.Y. Times that he didn't pick up the scent on any of these inconsistencies? Suspension of disbelief is always suspect. Willful ignorance like this is downright ugly.

And where was Daschle in all of this? As the "Chairman of InterMedia's advisory board", was it not his responsibility to flag such grotesque over-expenditures for "company provided transportation"? If Daschle not only doesn't think the expenditure was wrong, but ignores paying taxes on it to boot, is he fit to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services?

Finally, what of Barack Obama? If he's O.K. with this, do you suppose the Big Three's C.E.O.s can start flying their corporate jets again?