Sing Along
OK, all you fellow Brenda Lee fans, sing along:
I’m sorry, so sorry. Please accept my apology. But love was blind. And I was too blind to see……..
The song is an absolute classic, as are most of the songs sung by sultry Ms. Lee. But it was being sung today before the Senate Finance Committee by a much less sultry Timothy Geithner. The committee is tasked with approving Geithner as the new president’s pick to head the Treasury Department.
After it was discovered that Diamond Tim had previously been caught by the IRS for failure to report income on his income taxes, it was also discovered that he was in default for the exact same offense for years not previously audited. Senate Democrats applauded Geithner’s remorseful apology, but seriously what the hell else could the man do.
His apology was only half hearted at best in that it was more of an excuse than an apology. “These were careless mistakes. They were avoidable mistakes, but they were unintentional” said he. It makes me wonder if the careless part to which he referred was in not reporting the income or in getting caught. Either way he is correct on two of the three premises. They were careless and they were avoidable, but it defies explanation in calling them mistakes and he is being blatantly dishonest in saying they were unintentional.
Geithner is a really bright guy, having served on the board of the International Monetary Fund as well as working on Wall Street for a number of years. Once the IRS caught him the first time one would think a bright guy like that would have been able to figure out he needed to amend his previous returns with the same fraudulent income numbers.
This leads to a third possibility of the excuse/apology he rendered onto this kangaroo court. Perhaps what he was saying was he was sorry that he wasn’t able to foretell that he would be picked for a high government office so he figured it would be better to keep his mouth shut rather than opening a new can of penalty laden worms. Actually, had he said that I would have dropped all opposition to him just for showing he had the ability to be genuinely honest.
If he is confirmed, as it appears he most certainly will be, he will be in charge of the IRS. I wonder if he will institute a new policy by which anybody caught intentionally cheating on their taxes will be given the opportunity to refer to the previously federal offense as a mistake, make a genuinely disingenuous apology and move on with their life.
I am not naïve enough to believe that what Diamond Tim did was unusual by the standards of most wealthy individuals. I would venture to guess that many Wall Street executives could get an annual Pulitzer Prize for creative writing on their tax returns. What irks me far more than the offense itself is the constant insistence that Geithner and Geithner alone is just what the doctor ordered for the ailing economy. Republican Senator Grassley said he recognized that Democrats viewed Geithner as “possibly the only man for the job of healing the recession before us and a very fractured economy.”
To be sure he has the necessary experience and reputation to lead the Treasury Department through the rough waters the new president spoke of in his inauguration address. But he is not the only guy on Wall Street so equipped. There are a bevy of capable, experienced and well respected money men who could take this position and do an excellent job without the distraction of having been criminally negligent in personally maintaining the laws they will now be tasked with enforcing.
My question is why Geithner? Why not dump him as damaged goods and move on to a new pick?
Could it be that Geithner is one of the few guys qualified to head the Treasury that will publicly support the Democrats plan of throwing billions of tax dollars at politically motivated projects that will have very effect at actually bolstering the economy?
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released their report today projecting less than half of the $355 billion that House Democrats want to spend on highways, bridges and other supposed job-creating investments is likely to be used before the end of fiscal 2010. The CBO went on to say that the balance would likely be spent over the next several years, long after the recession is projected to end.
Maybe Geithner is the perfect guy for the job. He was able to tell the confirmation committee that his offenses were unintentional mistakes and keep a straight face. That’s just the kind of guy needed to sell this bogus political stimulus package to the American public.
Kind of reminds me of someone else. You know, that married guy that didn’t have sex with that woman.
I wonder what ever happened to him.
