What a shocking, surprise
All I can do is shrug my shoulders and say whatever. At this point, I truly don’t understand what is so freaking hard about paying your taxes and reporting income when you are a multi-millionaire/former Senator. It disgusts me to a level beyond my unemployed intellect.
First off the fact that he can just cut a check for this amount says something. 2nd, the fact that he has to do this at all to me, shows his ability to be an honest, ethical and fair decision maker.
[Tom Daschle chosen by] Obama to lead his health reform efforts, recently filed amended tax returns to report $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest, according to a Senate document obtained by The Associated Press.
Here is where it gets good:
Most of the additional taxes resulted from unreported income from the use of a car service provided him by a close friend and business associate, Leo Hindery Jr. The unreported income for that service totaled more than $250,000 over three years.
Daschle’s business relationship with InterMedia Partners of Englewood, Colo. Daschle is a limited partner and chairman of its executive advisory board. Daschle is also an independent consultant to InterMedia Advisors LLP of New York City.
Hindery founded InterMedia Partners, a private equity firm, in 1988. Daschle was paid $1 million annually for his services, the committee said. Daschle’s 2007 tax return did not include one of his monthly payments of $88,333.
Private Equity firm? Paying him $1mil a year? Jesus, he is a limited partner and a consultant for essentially the same company? Double dipping. Whatever man, just whatever. There is no way this was an accident. The guy isn’t doing his taxes on Turbo Tax purchased from Costco. He has account(S) plural, and he knew, they knew, this was supposed to be taxed.
Greed and Dishonesty, I can’t think of two better traits needed to head up health reform.
FU and the car that drove you here.
While I am at it, Who is Leo Hindrey Jr? Let’s do a looksie shall we
He was the Sr. Economic Policy advisor for John Edwards
He was the CEO of the YES Network (Yankees Network)
Was the CEO of ATT Broadband and (A former CEO of Global Crossing, Hindery made $250 million in stock options for less than 1 year’s work with the company which eventually went bankrupt. Hindery is a political activist having worked
Almost bought the Cubs
Worked for Obama (can’t find how much he raised/donated)
in short this visual from muckety.com illustrates it perfectly:
BAU in DC baby, BAU…
Assuming this is true about him, and it sure looks like it is, Daschle is a disgrace and should bow out. He cannot be trusted!
He was a disgrace when he was Senate majority leader.
The tax issues are not very disturbing, but the relationship is.
anon (not A1)–serious question:
Why aren’t over $100,000 in unpaid taxes a serious issue in a senior “public servant”.
Three years ago I had an issue with the IRS when I made the mistake of not filling in the purchase cost for some securities I sold for a profit. For $19,000 that was eventually negotiated down to $2,500 the IRS threatened me, pursued me, promised to garnish wages, and required me to pay penalties and interest equal to nearly 40% of the tax debt.
If I were to run for public office or even (ala Joe the asshole plumber) make a controversial public political statement, it would be fair game for the media to use that to try to discredit me.
So I fail to understand why it isn’t significant for Geitner or Daschle.
Enlighten me, please.
I never liked Tom Daschle.
Speaking to Daschle’s situation only — part of the income tax problem at Intermedia derives from an error his employer made in reporting the consulting income. How Daschle picked an accountant that didn’t reconcile the w-2s and the 1099s with the actual check stubs, I’ll never know.
His much bigger (and possibly insurmountable) problem here is definitely the car service that routinely wasn’t reported as taxable income.
So can we consider this “Day 1 of Tom Daschle’s Betrayal of the Country”?
(I hardly think it is day one, but ya gotta start somewhere, no?)
Daschle hasn’t cast a vote against anything in years. Keep reaching, though, Tyler.
Touchy this morning, geek?
What Daschle did was extremely stupid. I think Daschle’s and Geithner’s problems show how hard it is to find someone who has been in Washington for more than 5 minutes that doesn’t already have some taint.
Very true, UI, which is why they need to keep looking elsewhere, rather than glossing this kind of stuff over and installing these people in power anyway.
The Dems ran on the “Culture of Corruption” in 2006. It’s one of the reason they took so many seats in the House and Senate. However, before casting stones at others, they need to clean their own damn house. Daschle should not be confirmed. No way, no how.
To be clear, I’m not saying Daschle is corrupt. He’s a fool for handling his business the way he has. Corruption requires hardcore motives, and I certainly don’t know if there were any here.
Either way, the appearance of impropriety sucks and he should definitely be voted down. If Obama were smart, he’d replace this nominee with someone a bit cleaner.
Extremely stupid? No, UI, you missed it: someone has committed a crime here. You don’t get to under-report your income by six figures and not have it be a crime.
Now, the crime might not be Mr Daschle’s. InterMedia provided a car and driver for him, and InterMedia was billed for the car and driver. That means that InterMedia had the records. When I had a company vehicle, I had to fill out a mileage form, every year, detailing what percentage was business and what was personal. It was the company’s responsibility to send me that form, and my responsibility to return it. My taxable automobile benefit was reported on my W-2.
If InterMedia didn’t request the personal use information from Mr Daschle, then the violation was the company’s, not his. But he knew Leo Hindery, and knew his history; an honest politician — please pardon the oxymoron — would have been absolutely up-to-date on his accounting, especially when working for someone like Mr Hindery.
Further, Mrs Daschle is a highly paid lobbyist; they already went through ethical problems before. As a lobbyist, she has had plenty of experience in having to account for every penny that passed through her fingers; how could the Daschles not known about a free car and driver not being something the tax man should know about?
As the Minority Leader in 2001, Senator Daschle fought against President Bush’s proposed tax cuts. He made a demagogic “Lexus” vs “mufflers” presentation with then House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, saying that the Bush tax cuts as proposed would be too big a benefit for the wealthy, and not enough of one for the poor. I guess that we can see why Mr Daschle, a wealthy man himself, doesn’t mind higher taxes for the wealthy. If you are going to cheat on your taxes anyway, who cares what the other guy pays?
Notice how adept the right wing is at getting otherwise smart people like UI to do their bidding by saying things like: ” I think Daschle’s and Geithner’s problems show …? It’s the good old wingnut talking point, “They are all the same.”
Astonishing.
Daschel’s lousy judgement aside, this is a perfect example of how eager Democrats are to beat up on Democrats. Consider the fact that on this very day in 2006 Ben Bernanke was approved as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Where were the observations that “there is a taint” then?
The fact is, and I know this is going to make Mike Spastic, Republicans ARE the party of corruption.
Mike – you might have already forgotten about the past 8 years, but I haven’t
Jason,
Because the wrongs of Bush’s eight years in office should absolve the wrongs Obama will commit? Stop being so damn dense, OK? If this were a Bush nominee, your hyperbole and backbreaking rhetoric would be swinging from the ceiling (rightly) calling for his head.
Just stop, Jason. You look like a fool when you continue to defend Democrats like Daschle.
Republicans are not the party of corruption. They may be the party of “More-publically-realized” corruption, meaning the Democrats simply hide theirs better (illegal nannies and non-payment of taxes knows no partisan bullshit). But, one party can not simply be THE party of corruption when the other party engages just as well.
Jesus, man, you’re losing it. How broad is that brush you use on this easel called Delaware Liberal?
I knew it.
Ugh, another one of Jason’s non-response responses. Vague. And weak. Come on, dude, offer something. You knew WHAT?
Am I a Republican now (as I’m sure you’re next comment will accuse me of being)? Or am I simply the type of person asking HIS OWN PARTY (Yes, believe it or not. Out of sheer laziness, I have yet to switch my registration from “D”) to be held accountable in the same way I believe Republicans should be held accountable when they commit like acts?
It’s the principle here, Jason. To you, it’s only wrong when one side does it, as you allude in comment #15. Your opinion is that because Republicans did it so much worse during the last eight years, that Democrats should be able to do it a little bit, too. They should get a few free passes, right?
Again, that’s weak. And I’m sure you know it.
Calm down Mike.
For one thing – Where is my defense of Daschel? What I’m talking about is a media/political system that is stacked in favor of Republicans.
The Republicans have made no bones about the fact that they view the political process as war and Democrats as the enemy.
I think, of all people, you’d be able to see how this war is played out in the media.
Uh, Mike – With the right-wing stuff and hate speech you publish on your blog (Leo, Duminique, etc.), you have no room to tell Jason he looks like a fool.
You’re really becoming quite the defender of right wing idiocy these days.
And I agree with you that Daschle should not be confirmed.
Mike,
I have to go now. But take some time and really consider what I’ve said before go berserk.
Uh, Mike – With the right-wing stuff and hate speech you publish on your blog (Leo, Duminique, etc.), you have no room to tell Jason he looks like a fool.
Ad hominem. Whatever you want to call it, A1, you’re deflecting from the point at hand, one of your frequent tactics. Of course, your coddlers here at DL won’t call you out on it (unless Cassandra gets out her whip again, though this isn’t her post). You still haven’t taken my supreme advice re: your hang-ups on my blog: “Get over it.”
When will you address the substance — the PRINCIPLES — of my post without having to resort to the only thing you know: criticizing my blog and the writers therein? It really makes you look like the weaker person here.
Enjoy your day, J! I’ll be here when you get back. 😉
Mike, you’re the master of the Ad hominem. There is no one more adept at calling people names and then accusing them of Ad hominem attacks than you. No one.
I was addressing the issue in your post (telling Jason he looks like a “fool”) and I wasn’t attacking you personally, I was commenting on the content of the right-wing and hate speech you publish on your blog in comparison to what Jason writes.
So I addressed the “principles” of your post. Why don’t you clean up your own house instead of constantly criticizing Jason over here?
You seem to think that your blog, which you get paid to write, shouldn’t be subject to any criticism. You might take your own advice and “Get over it.”
Mike, you’re the master of the Ad hominem. There is no one more adept at calling people names and then accusing them of Ad hominem attacks than you. No one.
No. I called Jason a fool because of his logic. Hardly an ad hominem.
So I addressed the “principles” of your post. Why don’t you clean up your own house instead of constantly criticizing Jason over here?
One of the common tactics of folks like you is this, indeed. You deflected because you had nothing to say about the (valid) points I made telling Jason to look at what he’s saying. Rather than just keeping quiet, you felt you had to get in on the action by (again) attacking my blog. If you don’t like what my co-bloggers have to say, bring it up with them THERE. Not here. It’s irrelevant. Again, you deflect from my point. Is Jason right in saying that the GOP is THE party of corruption?!? That’s why I called Jason a fool. Not so much that he’s a fool, but that his opinion is ridiculously FOOLISH. You’re a smart guy, I would’ve thought you’d “get it.”
You seem to think that your blog, which you get paid to write, shouldn’t be subject to any criticism. You might take your own advice and “Get over it.”
I get paid to do a radio show. I do not get paid to blog. My blog is merely hosted on DTR’s servers. And, by the way, I love criticism. I absolutely love when people call me on bullshit. But you never call me on bullshit. You simply call me out based on your own ideological biases.
Next?
And continually referring to Dominique as Duminique is just downright rude and offensive. It was funny the first 10 times I read it in October.
However, by your leaps in logic, can I say that your calling her Duminique means that you hate women and that they should be deprived of such things as voting and equal pay?
Because those are the same types of leaps in logic you make about me and my blog when you bitch and moan about Leo and Dominique.
“Mike Matthews hates gays! Mike Matthews hates blacks! How? Well, he hosts bigots on his blog, so he must endorse those opinions!”
Can we assume that you hate women?
Guys… you’re falling back into your old ways.
Back to the matter at hand. What is it about politicians and taxes? This nonsense is becoming the norm.
What makes you think it’s just politicians? I have a hunch that if you looked into the taxes of the well-to-do regardless of party, you’d find a rather high percentage fail to pay SS for the nanny, cheat on the company car mileage — basically, any tax money that isn’t withheld is far harder to collect than what comes out of the paycheck before it gets to you.
Cheating on taxes — lower- and middle-class people tend to call it “getting paid under the table” — is as American as hot dogs, apple pie and lying politicians. If it gives the GOP an orgasm to take down a scalp or two over this, go ahead and have some fun, fellas. Does anyone really believe health care won’t get done without Daschle? Or that treasury can’t be run by anyone but Geithner?
Thanks Mom. 😉
Loves me some pandora!
I don’t 100% agree with you jason that we beat up on our own .
we hold them more accountable is all.
Geezer, you are right. Guess I’m just surprised that people who must be vetted – in public – keep doing this. You’d think they’d learn.
Mike,
Saying that Jason’s logic is foolish is expressing your opinion. Calling him a “fool” as a person because you think his logic is foolish is an ad hominem attack. That you can’t distinguish between the two is surprising, but it explains a lot.
You have been criticizing Jason a lot in the last week, sometimes for the severity of his name calling (and that’s a joke coming from you), and today you say he is a “fool” because he doesn’t necessarily equate not paying taxes (Daschele’s offense) with taking bribes, constantly lying to us, and generally ruining the country for the last 8 years.
But it is fine for you to criticize Jason and call him names, but woe be to anyone who points out the hypocrisy of your criticisms. Take your own “supreme advice” and “Get over it.”
And, right, because I think Duminique has some of the most moronic opinions I have ever read (like Bush, Obama and McCain differ only in name) means that I hate all women. And because I think Leo’s opinion that gays are evil means that I hate all men, too. Could you get a transvestite writer, please?
Actually, I have never written that you hate anybody. I have said that by publishing bigots who write that gays are evil and shouldn’t be given equal rights, you are complicit in perpetuating hate in the world. You think that advocating denying civil rights to people for whom they love is a legitimate point of view. I don’t and I am not ashamed to say so.
You say you don’t get paid for blogging yet your blog is hosted by your employer and branded as such. So, O.K., whatever you say. Certainly there is no way for the public to make that distinction.
And the GOP, not the Democratic Party, is the party of corruption.
Panadora and Donhusseinsquishviti,
I am sorry if you think that this is off-topic, but I don’t think that speaking up when Mike calls Jason a fool for the opinions Jason expressed in this thread is hijacking it.
Okay. Just to wrap this up, here is the lay of the land for everyone who has been in a coma for the past eight years.
Democratic Approach to Governing: Try to build consensus. Compromise. Be filled with doubt. Back off. Blame ourselves. Give in. Agree with Republicans who say we are weak. Promise not to cave. Cave.
Republican Approach to Governing:
Attack. Attack. Attack. Attack. Attack. Attack. Feign good will. Attack. Attack. Attack. Line pockets with the spoils.
I can see why Republicans take that approach. Everyone hates their policies, so staying on the offense is all they have. Also, it works.
“I am sorry if you think that this is off-topic, but I don’t think that speaking up when Mike calls Jason a fool for the opinions Jason expressed in this thread is hijacking it.”
A1,
You only get offended when I do it. Sorry, but calling someone a fool, though it may be an ad hominem, is something MOST OF US MATURE, WELL-SEASONED bloggers ACCEPT. I’ve known Jason for a few years now and I’d like to think we have a rapport where me calling him a fool isn’t something at which he’d get offended.
You’re simply being picking nits because it is I who made the comment and all you can do with me is bash me incessantly. And that’s OK. If it were Jason calling Protack, Dana Pico, Art Downs, or Sharon a “fool,” it would be OK.
Again, it all comes back to the same question: What is your obsession with me? You apply a different set of standards to your critiques of my comments than you do everyone else’s. It’s transparent to people like me and, I’d hope, the DELib blog writers.
What IS your issue?!?!
“And the GOP, not the Democratic Party, is the party of corruption. ”
Again, a silly, FOOLISH, absolutist statement. You use the article “the,” when you should use “a”.
I’ve known Jason for a few years now and I’d like to think we have a rapport where me calling him a fool isn’t something at which he’d get offended.
No worries.
Jason,
Good summary.
Mike,
If it were Jason calling Protack, Dana Pico, Art Downs, or Sharon a “fool,” it would be OK.
Well, duh, I wouldn’t disagree with that! And I wouldn’t criticize you for calling them “fools” either. 🙂
But if you’re gonna say “Jason looks like a fool” for always defending Dems; I am gonna say “No.” He is not one of those liberals who won’t take their own side in an argument. He is a warrior for the cause.
You apply a different set of standards to your critiques of my comments than you do everyone else’s.
Not really. You happen to be unique because you have a supposedly liberal blog and yet the preponderance of the political editorial writers you choose for it lean right to extreme right. And you’re not just another blogger; you are a paid talking head who often comes here to solicit listeners and guests. Therefore, I think it is important to point out the type of editorial content and writers that you publish on your blog. Nobody else here does. I still don’t understand why your blog is listed as on “The Left.”
If Del Lib published right-wing bloggers and bigots, I’d criticize them, too.
You’re a paid commentator, Mike. If you don’t want to be criticized for publishing and defending publishing right-wing tripe, then don’t do it, otherwise, get used to it.
Nothing personal.
P.S. I did mean “the”. Up With Absolutes! 😉
anonone (among others) wrote:
I guess it depends where you look, doesn’t it?
In the past few years, far more Republicans than Democrats in Congress got caught in unethical, and in some cases criminal, activity: Senators ted Stevens and Larry Craig, and Representatives Bob Ney, Randy Cunningham and Mark Foley. Against that list, the Democrats have only one miscreant, former Representative William Jefferson. And I’d point out here that of the ones who were prosecuted for federal offenses, they were prosecuted by a Justice Department run by Republicans.
But if you look outside of Congress, you find good people like the mayors of Newark, NJ, Baltimore, Birmingham, AB, and Detroit. Given that most people here are from the Delaware area, it’s unlikely that y’all haven’t heard of the sordid details from the trial of former State Senator Vince Fumo of Philadelphia. And the most recent story involves two Luzerne County judges up in my neck of the woods, whose convictions made the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer, though, shockingly enough, the Inquirer never told its readers to which party the judges belong.
I’d point out that George Bush lost one cabinet nominee, Linda Chavez, to unpaid taxes on a nanny, but Bill Clinton lost two: Zoë Baird and Kimba Wood, while Caroline Schlossberg, who made her own big play for the appointment to the Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton appears to have her own problems in this area.
I wish that I could say that corruption is a Democratic problem, but I can’t. It is a politician problem.
“If you don’t want to be criticized for publishing and defending publishing right-wing tripe, then don’t do it, otherwise, get used to it. ”
Again, you must not be understanding something here. I don’t mind that you criticize what my co-bloggers say. I don’t even really mind that you continually attach my beliefs to theirs simply because I have a policy on my blog of bringing people on board no MATTER WHAT they believe.
What bothers me is that every time I say something with which you disagree, you go off topic and bait me by invoking said issues you have with my co-bloggers.
Criticism? You think I give a damn? Jesus, DELibbers should be flocking to my defense here. They know I take criticism probably better than any political blogger in this state. I know, that’s saying a lot, but it’s one superlative I feel that I have actually earned.
I’m the guy who when I get something wrong and am brought to task on my blog, I not only correct, but will generally issue a WHOLE OTHER post correcting myself.
Again, all I’m asking you is to stop invoking Leo/Dominique and the hate YOU THINK I have inside of me every time you disagree with something I say on this blog. At best it’s simply irrelevant, pestering, and annoying. At worst, it’s just an intellectually dishonest way of diverting and deflecting the conversation to the points at hand.
You hijack these threads by attacking me because:
a) I have a dirty mouth
b) I allow Leo and Dominique to write on my blog
c) I get paid some cash for a radio show
d) you politically correct notions of how the world should be don’t gel with my politically incorrect notions of how the world actually is
e) all of the above.
And then I’m dumb enough to offer you a reply and get baited into this crap.
Again, and I’m getting tired of saying this, there’s obviously something about me that bugs you. Because people in the DE Blogosphere have done a whole heckuva lot worse than I have and seem to be absent from your continued scorn.
Until we (hopefully) meet, I guess I’ll never know. But know the door is always open. I’d love to meet you and, as any anonymous source can attest, I always keep people who wish to remain anonymous a deep secret.
So, why are you waiting?
I think all politicians are corruptible, but not all are corrupt. They hold positions of power that makes them very good targets for people who want favors. It’s up to us to make sure they stay clean, as best we can.
Daschle may be a great pick for HHS. However, he accepted free car service and didn’t think a thing about it. He didn’t pay taxes. If it were you or me, I doubt we would catch a break.
This is one time where I am going to have to agree with Dana. I think the whole “culture of corruption” grew around the Republican party because they were the ones in power. Democrats will need to watch and police themselves to make sure it doesn’t grow around them now.
Okay, I’ll flock to your defense, Mike… you ass. 😉
UI wrote:
Please, mark your calendars! 🙂
UI,
I feel like Morpheus in “The Matrix” I can only offer you the red pill. I can’t make you choose it.
UI has hit the nail on the head:
And that’s a result of attitude more than anything else. Tom Daschle might never have given it a moment’s thought, because the rules that apply to the rest of us didn’t seem to apply to him.
Maybe I’m the only one here who’s ever had a company vehicle, and am the only one with any experience with those rules, but I’ll bet that everyone here would at least consider, hey, this is an expensive benny if they were assigned company cars. Yet Mr Daschle got not only a company car, he got a driver with it!
I’m less interested in that part of this thread than the thread within a thread which says that this thread would not be happening if we were talking about a prospective Republican appointee..
AAAANNNNDDDD….
On the off chance that this thread was happening, we CERTAINLY would nto have Republicans up in here saying things like…“I think all politicians are corruptible.”
In this war that the GOP has launched agaimst the United States it is called message discipline.
They have it. We don’t. It is as if Germans had airplanes during WWII and we didn’t.
Got it?
Oh my, I need a drink after reading that, Jason. Methinks I don’t get it. Was that some existential wizardry on your part?
Jason,
It is even worse. It is as if we both HAD airplanes during WWII but the Germans used theirs and we kept ours in hangers because we didn’t want to hurt anybody.
Our liberal media:
GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/28/cable-news-stimulus/
R: Attack, attack attack.
D: Back down, back down, back down.
It is also worth pointing out that Daschle’s alleged transgressions were committed during the time he was a private citizen, not while he was a politician seeking or holding public office.
A1,
Honest, snark-free question that (hopefully) won’t get a response condemning me for having bigoted co-bloggers:
Should it matter if he was a private citizen?
Somebody needs to ask Tom Carper for his opinion of Mike Castle’s vote against recovery.
By the way, remember Castle still has a chance to redeem himself by voting for the reconciled bill.
Mike,
My point is that he was not using a public office for personal gain like so many repubs in our Federal Government have. So if his tax problem was not a crime, I don’t think it should disqualify him from public service.
As I said, I never liked Daschle. In Jason’s post #49, the “D” could easily stand for Daschle.
Fair enough.
A!,
So true. Not to brag, but notice how consistent I am by looking at my comment #5.
He lost me after I returned wet and cold from D.C. after protesting Bush’s coronation in 2001, and I read on Daschle’s website what a glorious day it was to see Bush inaugurated and how only the most jaded wouldn’t want to celebrate it. As we know, it was all downhill from there.
Consider me among the most jaded.
By the way, I have ALWAYS appreciated your consistency in the face of repubs and wingnuttery.
As Eschton points out…everything will made clear tomorrow on Meet the Press:
Not to mention Karl Rove’s dance partner David Gregory.
Indeedy.
Howard Dean for Secretary of Health!
Trust none of them, they all believe they are above the law, regardless of party. Question everything.
Talk about Balls Dick Morris the toe licker goes on Fox Noise and rants about appointees not paying taxes when he himself owes over $100,000 in unpaid taxes