Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to sell Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. He was removed from office through impeachment.
Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to that Senate seat, who has now admitted he wasn't completely forthcoming (i.e., he lied) about his interactions with Blagojevich before he received the Senate appointment. The new governor of Illinois, and the other Illinois Senator, has called on Burris to resign.
Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner didn't pay the Social Security and Medicare taxes from when he worked for the IMF. Note that Geithner's responsibilities include oversight of the IRS.
Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle also had tax problems that led to his withdrawing his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In reality, he only left when tax problems befell Nancy Killefer, who withdrew her nomination, and feminist organizations began wondering why a woman was forced to withdraw her nomination over tax problems that were a tiny fraction of Daschle's.
Tax problems continue to plague Obama's cabinet nominees. Hilda Solis, the new Labor Secretary, had her husband settle tax liens outstanding as far back as 1993.
Charles Rangel, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (in charge of tax legislation in the House), is being investigated by the House ethics panel for a series of problems for: failing to pay taxes on rental income from a Caribbean home he owns; controlling multiple rent control apartments; using stationary from the House to raise money for a center named for him; and helping secure a tax break for a donor to his center.
William Jefferson, a representative from Louisiana, was indicted for 16 charges of corruption and, in a remarkable development, lost his overwhelming Democratic house district to a Republican last fall.
Senator Chris Dodd received below market mortgages from Countrywide, a company falling under his purview on the Senate Finance Committee. His promise to release documents related to the matter was delayed over six months, and he acted on his promise by letting journalists briefly review the documents in his office without allowing them to make copies and review at their leisure.
Tim Mahoney, a representative from Florida, paid his mistress $121,000 to keep their affair quiet after she threatened to sue him; he berated her on a voice mail that became public; and Rahm Emanuel, now Barack Obama's chief of staff, tried to keep the matter private to prevent it from hurting Maloney' re-election chances.
Contrast that with the intense media frenzy that accompanied Republican Mark Foley (whose seat Mahoney won), who wrote lewd messages to congressional pages but didn't act on those messages. The media used the Foley matter, which arose in September 2006, to help elect Democrats in congressional elections that fall. No similar drumbeat existed with the Mahoney matter in the fall of 2008.
Republicans have had their share of problems, but the Democratic scandals include a long list of significant political figures - without the near-hysterical media attention lavished on Republican scandals.
Understandable that the one party that consistently raises taxes keeps doing so - Easy - dosen't effect them ... they don't pay their own!!
ReplyDeleteAnd for the media to barely report the shenanigans of "their" political party - now that doesn't seem fair! ;) Perhaps they actually believe that tax evasion is fine, as long as you get away with it or it goes unnoticed!