I basically agree. The Obama administration seems to be doing a better job of background checks than the Bush administration.

But, the problems Obama's team is finding during these background checks demonstrate how widespread conficts of interest and ethics problems are.

The key test will be whether or not Obama holds his administration accountable for its present and future actions. Exposing the past problems and taking corrective actions for them when appropriate satisfies me -- as a Christian I believe in the concepts of repentance and forgiveness.

But, it is critical to set up standards to hold officials accountable for any future misdeeds -- then follow through if such corruption occurs.

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This is the major issue, instead of Americans we have become Democrats and Republicans. All the problems of the world are blamed on the other party.

The fact is Obama harped on change, and his first week in office is arguably more of the same. Please don't turn this into a partisan issue. This is a man who lied to the American people to get elected, and is now doing whatever he pleases. And yeah, the last administration lied too. So what. Two wrongs never make a right.

We the non politicians, Americans, need to wake up and realize the entire D.C. scene is nothing more than a frat club, with little interest in helping out the common American within the guidelines provided by our forefather's.

And that's the last time I click the 'use XHTML Mode instead link'!

1.2....Agree that two wrongs does make a right, but three left turns do....

J J 1.2...Sorry, made a boo-boo..
2 wrongs don't make a right, but 3 left turns do....

Ethics reform?! What ethics reform?! This crap is the same old amoral Washington insider politics just being perpetrated by Obama and his thugs instead of Bush and his cronies. And of course, all the liberal apologists are out to smooth it over for their messiah. CHANGE.......ROTFLMAO!

Jameseg: Ok, so you say that Obama is at least doing a better job at background checks, so what...he is still going to use the crook. You try not paying your taxes and see what comes of it. I see no ethics reform from this administration at all. Everyone except Richardson has been confirmed and the only reason he wasn't is because he dropped out of the running, which before he did so I thought of Richardson as a pimple on the back end of the donkey, now that he stepped up and became a man by owning up to his failure, I have a new found respect for Richardson. Are you also going to tell me that Clinton will not listen to her husband's whispers when it comes to dealing with the countries he has accepted money from?

Obama made a pledge, many of them, and is now going back on them. Ok, so call him a politician...but...did you really expect anything different from him? He is proving to be "Slick Willie II", and cannot be trusted. Closing Gitmo, using my tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries, using your tax dollars (and mine) to fund your next door neighbors health care, claiming to be partisan, but instead listening to the ultra non-partisan Pelosi. It is going to be a very long 4 years, if we last that long.

I see there are people who are still drinking the "Obama kool aid"!!! He is a typical politician---say anything to get elected, then do what you want once elected. He is also a typical Dem----he's able to legitimately explain away, at least in his mind, any decisions that go against promises.

If the Obama team is doing a better job of background checks and still picking these people only make it worse. He knowingly is picking people with shady backgrounds---of course, since most are from the Clinton administration, who would expect anything else.

ENJOY THE OBAMA MYTH !!!!!!!

More apologies from the admin that was suppose to "change" things what a load. I love the statement in the piece that says -- "Several Democrats, including some who have advised Mr. Obama, said privately that he had only himself to blame for delivering such an uncompromising message as a candidate without recognizing how it would complicate his ability to assemble an administration". You mean to tell me that you have to have tax cheats, crooks and thugs in an administration and if you don't then it "complicates" trying to fill cabinet positions. Does it tell you something about all these people we now put in office -- they are all crooks of some kind or another -- if they aren't tax cheats then maybe sex addicts, or slipping around bathrooms in parks, or leaving a car upside down in the water as a young woman dies, or get better than the best interest on housing loans, --- liars every damn one of them and I do mean every one of them. Time to clean house America or we are doomed to be ruled by thugs, thieves, robbers, and sexual predators. What a country -- Come to think of it we are already ruled by them --

Is it any suprise that Barack Hussein Obama is not what he appears to be. He and his elitist associates want to make policies that they themselves are exempt from. Ethics is for you but we are excused. Sounds like "Animal Farm", we are all equal but some of us are more equal. Typical socialists. We hold every one else accountable but we excuse our own behavior. Geitner, Daschle, Richardson, Rezko, Ayers,Khalid Al Mansour, Saul Alinsky and the list goes on. When are people going to realize that who you are is influenced by those you associate with. The disregard for the truth and the law is a consistent pattern in Obama's past, present and will be in the future.

Democrats or Republicans they are both politicians and liars. They say whatever is necessary to get elected and then continue their unethical charades once they are in office. The sad part about this election particularly is that neither major party candidate held the Constitution with any regard. Our founding fathers wrote that each of us, according to the Declaration of Independence, are endowed by our Creator (not our government) and not to be abridged by our Government to, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." The American people are looking to a corrupt system and its corrupt leaders to fix our nation’s moral malaise and its economy. The tax policies that Barack Obama stands for and and the so-called ethical standards that he supports are nothing more than political posturing with little substance. They are designed to cull public support so that he get what he wants most which is a socialist economy.

Ethics is a ploy to convince people that his goals are noble so he can manipulate people to support his desire to socialize the economy. These policies are just a continuation of Bush’s expansion of the government but on a grander scale. What this administration is doing and will do is going to continue to erode the ability of hard working Americans to sustain the basic principle of , "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" because what a man/woman earns is continuing to be demanded by the outstretched hand of the "Big Brother government". This is the core problem with our economy. Americans who would invest in meeting the basic economic needs of their families are unable to do this because of the tax policies that Barack Obama and frankly the entire congress and both parties Democrats and Republicans with very few exceptions are implementing. These policies take average citizen's money and put it in the hands of an inefficient, over bloated, expanding and corrupt governmental structure.

It is sickening to watch the demise of a once great and noble nation as an anti-American president leads us into a lack of ethics and a socialist future.

Two words: rangle rule!

If Daschle had owned up back in December I might agree but he did nothing until January and that poses a problem. I think that every elected official should be scrutinized for this and I am sure that there are many from both parties that are doing the same sort of tax evasion activity. My issue is that Obama promised to "change" and I am not seeing that. I voted for him based on this and I am currently disappointed.

OzzNelson...I totally agree with you. I also see no ethics reform from this president or any of his cabinet picks. I hope the best for our country but it looks to me like we are headed down a long dark road.

Amy:

Get over Bush. The rest of us have. He is not to blame for Obama's ethics problems today. You had 8 years to bash Bush. Give it up.

Obama should stop talking about change and starting SHOWING us change.

On the subject of ethics, if anyone was in doubt about whether or not Obama wanted a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT, you should see the CNN clip on YouTube videos where Obama is REWARDING illegal aliens. Go to YouTube and enter the title: "

Lou Dobbs: Amnesty Bill Provisions"

OzzNelson, regarding your comment #1.7,

Time may prove you to be right. But, I think Obama is seeking to provide a more ethical approach to government, as evidenced by the background checks.

Regarding your comment on abortion: I do strongly disagree with Obama on abortion, whether funding it directly or funding it indirectly by funding organizatons that provide them. I hope Obama will follow through with his campaign commitment to greatly reduce the number of abortions through better education and making contraceptives more available. Personally, I oppose all abortion.

However, so far Obama seems to be doing a reasonable job at seeking to keep many of his promises. Rarely does any politician keep all his promises -- new information always comes to light after they take office, etc.

I'll bet the Dems that voted for BO are wiping their eyes in disbelief! Yes, you did vote him in. Yes, he is not doing what he promised. This is what happens when the lower half of the intelligence spectrum gets the candidate they desire. Yes, you are not that smart when you vote thinking the government is going to solve all your problems.

Sorry but I don't agree. I think Obama is a classic example of political backtalk. Of course, he's going to say what you want to hear but he'll do as he darned well pleases. For example, he picked a screening committee that was bragged up for their great abilities and look at Daschle and Mr G - tax evaders- and Obama stand by them so it is obvious that his ethics don't match the taxpayers at all.

Obama was Head of the Ethics Committee that refused to hear complaints about babies that were aborted beyond the first term and left to die in hospital dirty linen rooms - YouTube title "Let out to die" He refuse not once but three times to do anything about this disgusting practice.

jameseg...you state

"Time may prove you to be right. But, I think Obama is seeking to provide a more ethical approach to government, as evidenced by the background checks."

One would hope that weeded out much of the garbage. As it seems in retrospect it just gave his Administration time to deal with damage control.

Aren't you the least bit concerned with all these backers who have spent months supporting this man and yet didn't bother to modify their behavior until after the fact when prospects got good?

what promises has he kept so far?

How is he solving ethical problems with backgroudn checks? He's finding problems that should exclude people from serving and still pushing them through. Are you saying it's better to KNOW they are dishonest as opposed to just supecting it?

Don't say he's closing gitmo, it's still open.

Don't say out of Iraq in 16 months, we're still there and will be there long after 16 months. He's going to use the "combat" troops leaving in 16 months line (while many stay behind to train Iraquis). Hello, mr. President. They are ALL combat troops.

No lobbyists? he messed up there.

Full transparency? His definition different than mine.

Amy, bravo on your beautifully executed partisan assessment of the process. As one who sees corruption and patronage in both party's is the scrubbing before or after they find the ethical dilemmas? This seems more like business as usual to me.

,

How can we expect our politicians to hold themselves to a higher standard when we as citizens don't even offer tolerance to those who believe differently than us. Implying that all Dems are contained in the lower half of the intelligence spectrum is exactly the opposite of what our country needs right now.

It's time to take a look in the mirror, all of us, and realize we ourselves are but one small part of America. We need to remember our country was founded on the principle that men should not be persecuted for their beliefs. A country where every man has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Name calling, mud slinging, intolerance. All things that are dragging this country down. Until we can look at our fellow Americans and tolerate them, even when they have different views, until we can do that, it is naive to think the people we elect to represent us will be able to.

And before you retaliate, know that I am from Colorado, a former Republican, now Independent.

Colorado wrote:

I'll bet the Dems that voted for BO are wiping their eyes in disbelief! Yes, you did vote him in. Yes, he is not doing what he promised. This is what happens when the lower half of the intelligence spectrum gets the candidate they desire. Yes, you are not that smart when you vote thinking the government is going to solve all your problems.

I voted for him, and I'm not wiping my eyes in disbelief. Neither do I think I'm on the "lower half" of the intelligence spectrum-- believing in a different set of ideals than the pro-corporatist, socially-divisive neo-cons that have been in power of late in Washington does not make me stupid.

Neither was I looking for, or expecting perfection-- no plan of attack ever survives encounter with the enemy, after all. Change is a process, not some all-in-one physical thing.

The Obama administration has made some steps toward fulfilling their campaign promises, and had some setbacks. That's no different than any other administration in history. I also expect that, had he come in and done a clean sweep of everything and everyone in Washington, we'd be hearing quite a bit of uproar about his "exclusionary politics" and him "choosing rank amateurs" and "not letting the other side have their say"... well, quite a bit more than we're hearing from the chattering classes at present, that is.

Amy, Amy, Amy, once again a Democrat trying to excuse their guys problems by pointing to anothers. My father told me that only a child tries to excuse their bad conduct by pointing at those of another. I guess that makes the democratic party the party of children. But for your enlightenment, it waqsn't Obama's people who discovered the errors it was the senate and George Bush's people had problems too so take your uninformed rhetoric elsewhere. Lets try to limit the coments on here to adult talk...

I have a question for you jameseq, why even have background checks if you still hire the person after you find that he/she is corrupt? Every time it's a democrat that gets caught it's an honest mistake, he’s still a good guy. But let there even be an assumption, unproven, of gilt and they have to be ostracized. I’m glad that America is finally waking up to the double standard.

And WmrAllen, you must get your paycheck from the government, like a teacher, i'll bet, just the kind of person that i had to explain the truth to my children about.

Aren't you the least bit concerned with all these backers who have spent months supporting this man and yet didn't bother to modify their behavior until after the fact when prospects got good?

Txmom32, regarding your comment #1.20 and the above quote from it:

Yes, I am concerned that these people didn't change their behavior and seek to check their past to repent and make corrections. But, Democrats and Republicans all seem to have some skeletons in their closets.

Otherwise, how could they belong to a political party? Most members of both parties present biased perspectives on issues to some extent to support their party's perspective. But, despite the flaws and corruption, I think most genuinely seek to serve the public -- at least to some extent.

Personally, I am an Independent who voted for Ralph Nader for President. Google him and see how much has accomplished over his liftetime. But, even Ralph Nader is not perfect, and overall I think Obama is off to a good start.

Background checks, blah. Daschle came out himself and told Obama he didn't pay taxes. Obama has gone back on just about every word he uttered during his campaign. "I will have no lobbyists on my staff" Well he just hired over 12 of them. If he really wants people to believe he is sincere about all he campaigned about then he should get rid of Geithner, Dashcle, and all the lobbyist he just hired.

Yes Obama is doing backround checks, but he is looking for criminals to create his steal from the American people dream team. He will pass this guy and the next crook too. He is your president you deal with him. The United States of America is gone we are just a open bank account for our politicians to use at will until it is all gone and we wake up one morning as part of Europe or Mexico.

$128,000 in taxes? How many of us make $128,000, and he deeply apologizes? Translation= Gee, wish I hadn't gotten caught cheating on my taxes, now please look the other way while I rob ya again! Change? Daschle=Cheney, different day, same result.Same of the same.

There was once a crooked politiician, named John, let's just say he was from Chicago to make this story believable. He died, and they couldn't find anybody to do the eulogy since no one had anything good to say about the guy.

Finally one man said he would deliver the eulogy and try to say something positive about the deceased. He stood up by the casket and put his hand on it. Then he looked out at the mourners and said, "As bad as John was, his brother was every bit as bad if not worse."

This seems to be the argument from Dems since Obama took office. He's totally screwing up and playing the people for fools, and all I hear from Dems is "oh, yeah, what about Bush? He did this. He did that."

Bush is not the president! Obama is! We are talking about Obama! If he had one honest or moral bone in his body, he'd have told a couple of these appointees to take a hike. Or is it that based on his past in Chicago politics and US senate, he doesn't know any honest people?

Amy.... You don't know what you are talking about ! There were ten times more people looking into Bush appointees. Just searching for some dirt. In this case, Obama searched and found the dirt and then says it's no big deal. He was the one spouting off during his campaign about this. Even the left wing press is showing some fairness on this issue. He is going to turn himself into a punch line before too much longer !

OK, Geitner has tax problem but is confirmed.

Daschle has tax problem but dem apologists are ok with it.

Richardson has problem and drops out without any support from dems.

Geitner is white male, Daschle is white male and Richardson is hispanic.

How come the onlly one who is "under the bus" is the hispanic guy? Curious party the Dems.

Obama lied to get elected and he has lied since being in office...now that is change we can believe in! He has quickly proven that he is the same old wine in a Socialist bottle. He is a joke, but it is not funny.

Do you people just make stuff because you dislike someone? Give me a few facts that show Bush didn't do background checks.

Overall how does one state Obama has any ethics. I realize all of the people supporting Obama ignore facts and live in fantasy land; however, I will list a few again just in case someone wants to be informed in the next election.

Obama to fund the UNFPA; which, has been proven, with full knowledge, to fund, support and participate in forced abortions and sterilizations in five countries. How ethical is it for Obama to give our tax dollars to throw woman in prison until they authorize an abortion and a sterilization. Strapping woman down giving them injections to kill their baby and then induce labor. These occur in the third trimester. For all of the nuts and lazy people go to Population Research Institute and watch the video's. Or you can go on-line and read Colin Powell's report on the UNFPA. Yes this is the Colin Powell that is pro-choice; yet, told President Bush to not fund this organization.

How about his relationship with Rezko that was selling jobs and gave Obama a $300k discount on his house for no good reason.

I could go on but why. Facts only get in the way of people being self centered. Use the 15 minutes of waterboarding of terrorist to excuse the strapping down of woman to have there babies killed. For the woman how long does it take to have induced labor. How long does it take to have a dead baby that has turned black from the injection. I guess no one considers this torture. It is just population control. It doesn't matter what the woman wanted. Anyone that voted for Obama is immoral and unethical just like he is.

Just wait for universal health care and euthanisia. It is coming. Did you hear of the woman that had cancer in Oregon. Her doctor wanted to give her a new drug to fight the cancer. The state did not approve her funding for the new drug. They did approve funding for her to kill herself. This is what you voted for I just hope that you do not get cancer. They may just pay for you to kill yourself.

Obama and ethics is a joke.

rwood is correct in that with Bush, he had the entire main stream media doing background checks in addition to his own people doing them. That's certainly not happening now.

This background crap, some people are giving Obama credit for is his own "internal investigation". You know, like the one they did about conversations with blago about senate seat. It went from obama saying "We had no contact with Gov Blagoyevich about the senate seat." to then becoming "I (personally)had no contact with Gov blago about the senate seat." Then it became "We've investigate ourselves and found that we had no INAPPROPRIATE contact with Gov Blago about the senate seat."
I took inappropriate to mean no money changed hands.

Once again the American people are showing how gullible we can be. The words politician and liar are synonymous. Obama is no different than any other. He shoveled bull@!$%# on the American people and they bought it hook, line and sinker. Two appointees have already been found guilty of tax fraud or evasion and yet he still chooses to back them when in his campaign speeches he promised change. If you or I held out even a hell of a lot less in taxes it would be a one way trip to the federal pen. We have been letting these jackasses do this for so long that most of us have blinders on. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't have any of their jobs as it is impossible to please all of the people not that pleasing people is my goal either. However these jobs are very lucrative if you please the right people ie. Lobbyists, government contractors, captains of industry. However it shouldn't allow you to get away with criminal behavior. I did not vote for Obama yet I chose to allow him the chance to sink or swim and not two weeks into the presidency he is already choking. Can't say I am surprised. Recall your lying senators and congressmen now. Prosecute them to the fullest extent possible. Send a message " Do your job or get out" If we all do this to enough of the bastards the message will get out that they might want to think long and hard about whether they want the job and how they conduct themselves once elected. Just a thought.

jameseg- which Bush appointee's did not pay their back taxes. State facts give names. I am curious about your age. My bet is in your 20's. You seem to have fallen for all the old game tricks. Any body older would know a politician is a politician is a politician. Ever wonder why they take a job that pays less than their previous salary's. You are not really naive enough to believe it is for the good they can do. Have you not noticed the payoffs they take as honorarium's when they get out of office. Who would pay 250,000 dollars to listen to someone speak at a diner, when no one listened to them when they had a public pulpit because they new they were full of crap.

Isn't Obama doing whatever the hell he wants?

Change you can believe in!!!

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May I proudly present (ta-dah):

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The MOST unethical administration EVER!!

(And you ain't seen nuthin' yet!!)

It doesn't make any difference if the president is scrubbing dirt off of his corrupt DREAM CREW. He went back on his campaign promises. He nothing but a LIAR. The people who voted for him don't want him to make exceptions to his promises that he gave to the American people. CHANGE, CHANGE, CHANGE was his sermon to us. Nothing is going to change except the damn dress code in the White House. He's the President of the United States, dress like one. The American people have spoken and the President had better get on board or he will find his ass packing after four years. People don't want to hear that a president should make exception to his promise to America. Now he's looking like a CLOWN that's back on the block. He looks more like BLAGO the CLOWN every single day. He's no better than any of our other gangster Presidents. Instead of being a WHITE CLOWN he's a BLACK CLOWN. Same crap, some old politics and same old bull dong. If he thinks that the American don't care about his promises to us, then he's an IDIOT.

There are only a couple of solutions to Washington now. One of them I don't want to think about or admit because the other is a doable solution if the American people will rise up. The fact that Obama would have problems fulfilling his stated adjenda in the campaign was always known condition by anyone who follows Washington. In fact, I predict that he will have far more problems with his own party than the opposition in time. The Bush bashers will bash him until they die because they have no solutions. The Obama bashers will continue in retaliation. How sad on both accounts when the problem has been an immoral Congress for at least the last 50 or more years.

We need a complete change in Congress. All incumbents must be voted out. In the Democrat or Republican primaries vote out the old and vote in the new PERIOD. And if the incumbent wins the primary vote for the other party in the election. 1/3 of a corrupt senate will be gone and the entire house will be gone. Send them to Washington with the mandate to pass term limit laws or they will be gone in the next election. I propose 2 terms in the House, 2 terms in the senate, and two terms as president (as it is now) with a maximum of 10 years service in unelected positions in government agencies with the exception of the military, FBI, Customs, Border Patrol etc. where training for special skills takes significant time. In this country we must get rid of the notion of professional politicians and beaurocrats. If we don't, we are faced with the other solution eventually--Civil War or Revolution.

If you want to leave that legacy to your children and grandchildren, just stay on your fence posts squaking like magpies about how bad Bush was and how bad Obama is. Your voices will eventually be lost in the wind because they mean nothing as the immorlity within the Belt Way continues with both Democrats and Republicans.

Amy you poor thing. You truly believe that Obama's cronies are exposing all their nominees dirt on their own to prove how honest and open they are??? How ridiculous. Grow up. You have been hypnotized by the Obama promises and even he concedes that he can't actually live up to his promises. Your Infommercial candidate got you to buy into his rhetoric and now you haven't quite admitted to the buyers remorse. But we'll all hang on until you guys just can't refuse the truth any more. I know it's tough, but you'll be ok. We can't all be perfect like "the messiah".

obama doing a better job of background checks? Two people that can't claim their income. Come on, it was no mistake. They never even paid any interest or penalties on what they owed. Would you or I get away with this? One of them is running our treasury department and he can't even use Turbotax. Holder is a scoundrel that recommended a pardon for Marc Rich. What a joke. Obama says that there will not be any lobbyists or former lobbyists in his administration. Now he has two and made special exceptions for them. You libs are idiots. This is not change. This is the same old crap that was promised by a liberal democrat. obama and your democrat buddies will run this nation in the dirt, permanently. Stimulus bill? It is mostly a spending bill on so much extra crap that we do not need.

BREAKING NEWS!!!! Another appointee has problems paying her taxes and will drop out. Nancy Killefer will withdraw her name. The White House has accepted her withdrawal.

So now the Dems have thrown a WOMEN under the bus along with the hispanic guy but the 2 white males are still there and being supported. I thought it was the Republican party that was the party of the good old boy network. Guess I was wrong.

So which party is actually the racist, sexists one? Wonder if any Obama appointees are gay cuz if they are and they didn't pay their taxes I'm sure they will be under the bus with Nancy and Richardson. lol lol roflmao !!!!!!!!!!! YES CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN!!! lol

looking at the comments that already have 20+ votes, nothing more to add... ;o)

So just going through the motions is good enough? Doing a background check and disregarding or excusing the findings is enough to constitute the change our current president campaigned on? That's my main problem: Obama's overriding promises to be different and change the way business is conducted in Washington. He won the support of the "little guy" who'd been abused by financial elites, Wall Street, etc. I didn't believe him, but a lot of people did, and I feel sorry for them. Repub or Dem it's tough to watch him disregard the very identity he created for himself so soon.

SickOfTheLeft wrote:

And WmrAllen, you must get your paycheck from the government, like a teacher, i'll bet, just the kind of person that i had to explain the truth to my children about.

Nope... and if you're going to make these kind of assumptions, then I wonder what "truth" you're actually explaining...

I am, in fact, an example of the "Average American"-- white, middle-class background, good education, mostly average-paying (if hours-intensive) jobs. Did everything "right"-- went to a good school, payed off my loans, worked for years to pay off my consumer debts, went back to school to try to improve my situation-- and now I find that, because the economy is in dire straights, it's hard to find a job in my field that will pay me what I'm worth.

So, now I actually owe the government more each month than I can comfortably cover without a steady income. And it isn't because I bought a house with a "bad" mortgage, or because the "eeevil unions" make labor costs in my field too high, or any of the other conservative talking points-- merely because, in my opinion, the folks that fooled us into letting them "run capitalism" for the last few years by appealing to a bunch of "social" issues that they didn't bother to work on in any substantive way in any case did a piss-poor job of paying attention to the real-life situation of the common man, but held that the business elite were "the best people" and bent themselves over backwards to accommodate the culture of "executive profit uber alles" and went out of their way to nationalize the risk, but not the profit, of trading bad derivatives between themselves as if they were Pokemon cards.

So, if I ended up "sick of the right" and wanted them outbecause I believe that a more Keynesian and less Friedman-esque outlook would be a better approach, well, you can see why. And if I'm willing to overlook some of this empty, oversimplified rhetoric about "it isn't change because he isn't being your perfect Messiah" that the conservative side is (blasphemously) putting out, that may actually be a more reasoned, pragmatic response to the situation than constantly whining about every little thing. And finally, compared to the divisive, identity-politics-driven ad-hominem rhetoric of the McCain campaign, the message of unity that the Democrats put forth this time around represented to me a better direction for this country than the Cold-War revanchism and "us-versus-them" blinders of the last few years (on both the domestic and international fronts).

Mark you are wrong. Dashle paid interest on his owed tax in the neighborhood of 11k. If you think someone who makes the kind of money these guys are making uses turbo tax you are sadly mistaken.

People with mistakes on their taxes are not committing tax evasion. It's way more complicated than that. You can believe that it was all intentional but that is a matter of opinion not fact. You'll all have to deal with the fact that neither are criminals.

Now on the lobbyists. That was an out and out lie and I am disappointed that Obama couldn't find someone else that was up to his new standards and had what he deemed were the necessary qualifications. All it's doing is distracting from what is important right now and building up mistrust in his new administration.

A few weeks and he is unable to bury one problem after another - historically speaking, this is a sign of a poor politician.

TRANSPARENCY VS APPARENCY! Hmmmmm

Look Dude, Big O is screwing up! It's not a comparative thing. He made a lot of lofty promises during the campaign, but he has yet to demonstrate that he is capable of fulfilling them. Our president, Pinocchio, does not have a clue - he takes his marching orders from Soros and Pelosi!

He is done the samething all other presidents have done. Bend the rules to fit their need. How do you have a treasury sec. that does not pay taxes "no excuse"? How do you have a Atty. General that help pardon terrorist an claims not to know what they needed a pardon for ; is he stupid,"no excuse"? We like to say how smart President Obama is lets give him credit ;right or wrong. He is now going to do the samething all Presidents do set the bar a figure away to get what they want. The new spending bill has more pork than normal, they just gave it a different name. I think he can reach his goals his going to have to take the turf road and keep the bar high an stick to it.

Oh please! Obama is a thief just like the rest of them! Democrats, Republicans, it just doesn't matter! They have been blowing smoke up our kazoo's for years, and obviously they believe we are too stupid to read between the lines! I gave up watching WWF wrestling years ago, I guess now, we are watching the political version! Wake up sheople!

Ok Walt so you obviously have an issue with all politicians. I'm sure you are one of the people shouting to vote them all out! Ok...if we want to clean house then who do you propose we vote in. I don't know what the ballot looks like where you come from but where I come from there are usually only a couple choices, Red or Blue? I suppose there's always the write in option. I know my Uncle Bill is looking for work. Maybe he'd make a good congressman. I suppose we could always just vote for "the other guy" regardless of party affiliation if we are unhappy with our current representation but my guess is that "the other guy" is probably a career politician too.

Yup - So much for Obama ethics - What an incredible farce! Obama talks ethics reform and then puts two tax cheats in his cabinet!!! Guess he thinks it takes a crook to catch a crook! Nobody in their right mind would believe these guys would have paid their taxes if Obama had not considered them for his cabinet. And, regarding Bush, like Lincoln and Truman, who were also unjustly criticized while in office, Bush will be mostly vindicated when history looks back at him.

Time to start the impeachment proceedings for our hopefully soon to be former, the illegitimate, president!

Amy-368775: You wrote “Do you really think the Bush team tried to find or cared if his nominations had anything to hide? Bush did whatever the hell Bush wanted.” Please explain what you wrote with factual examples of poorly vetted nominees in the Bush administration.

According to the New York Times, Obama continued to support Tom Daschle as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services even AFTER the news broke about Daschle's tax problems. So what kind of ethics does Obama have? And if Obama’s vetting team is so efficient, why was Daschle a viable nominee in the first place? Also, let’s not forget that Obama nominated and still backs Timothy Geithner as Head of the Treasury Department, even though Geithner “forgot” to pay taxes for four years. Isn’t that like putting the fox in charge of the hen house?

All of this stinks, and your worshipping of Obama reveals your blindness to his hypocrisy. Are you waiting for his nose to grow to match his ears? The Obama administration apparently is "stocking the pond" with crooks, tax cheats, hypocrites, lobbyists, and nincompoops.

In just a few weeks as president, Barack Obama’s circle of friends has become a little better known:

Tom Daschle, who overlooked his $128,000 tax liability;

Charlie Rangel, who writes tax laws but doesn't pay taxes;

Chris Dodd/Joe Biden, who wrote mortgage laws and got sweetheart rates for themselves;

Bill Richardson, who promotes “pay to play” in New Mexico (grand jury investigation is underway over how state contracts were issued to his political donors);

Hillary Clinton, who is living off of $250 million of potentates’ wealth;

Barney Frank, who oversees Fannie Mae while living in a gay relationship with its CEO;

Timothy Geithner, who is head of the IRS, but failed to pay taxes for four years (he simply forgot to);

Caroline Kennedy, who has an illegal immigrant housekeeper, and failed to pay payroll taxes;

Nancy Killefer, Obama’s nominee for the first Chief Performance Officer, who had tax problems involving her household staff;

Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago machine politician;

Barack Obama himself, who practically got a free house with the assistance of racketeer Tony Rezko;

Michelle Obama, who landed a cushy $300,000 public relations job with a Chicago Hospital District.

Like my mom used to say: “Birds of a feather flock together” and “You’re known by the company you keep.” Moms really know a lot.

One must be ethical to inspire reform. No potential of reform in the next four years.

Proctor & Robertson,

Both are 100% correct!

Thank you both Proctor and Robertson, i now know why they are hiring 11 thousand coustom and FBI agenst.... For years they have not hiried like that.. Obama wants to let illeags in.. I starting to think it will be to contol some riots.. I have ask my uncle whom is a coustom agent and has been for almost 20 yrs he said they never hired like this before... I am glad some see what is possiabley is comming. And before anyone tells me to leave like they did before.. I am 100% native amercain if anyone belongs here it is me. My fore fathers fought for my right as a amercain for free speech.. So do not even go down that path cause i am not leaving..

All we are is heading down the same old road in a different car.

A zebra without the stripes is just a horse.

i have been waiting for his nose to grow to match his ears

Don't leave fight for your birthright if you have too. Vote, use your phone, or computer. If it comes down to it..... Exercise all of your rights given to you by the Constitution, Bill of rights, and Declaration of Independence. Thats what your forefathers put them their for. Just for this occasion. They knew this day would come. They fought a war some died to give you this gift, do not disappoint them by not using it. They would not have written those words unless they meant them, Presidents Lincoln and Wilson both reafirmed our rights under them and urged the people not to forget them. DON"T

i gave up 9 years of my life and i sure as hell will give up, not for these butt heads.

Get ready for socailism. The dems and libs are bringing it. Government will control just about everything and the people will never give it back. The hard working people get penalized and the lazy people get rewarded.

Definition of Reform - "get rid of unacceptable habits: to adopt a more acceptable way of life and mode of behavior."

What better way to show Obama's version of "Reforming ethics" than to hire crooks and give them a second chance?

How about we let this man do his job. Quit worrying about the people and look at thier abilities. I'm glad Obama supports his staff. If only these dick brained republicans would step out his way and let him run the county as a comander and chief should. The "GOP" ran this country for 8 years and look at us. I don't think they need to have a say in any part of Obama's stimulus plan.

What an incredible farce! Obama talks ethics reform and then puts two tax cheats in his cabinet!!! His idea must be "it take's a crook to catch a crook!"

dwtjst

"it take's a crook to catch a crook!"

Maybe that just what we need. Maybe i was the only one that heard that their tax issue was either resolved or being resolved. There is not one, single, solitary, politician or anyone on this planet for that matter, that has a clean slate. Nobody like to pay taxes, and if i had as much to pay as they did then dammit i'd take my time too to pay them greedy crumb snatchers too. People tend to forget, the IRS is not perfect either, they'll hunt us down if we owe them 5 dollars, but if they short hand us 1,000+ we'll never know nor will we ever recover it. Obama realize that no body in his cabinet is spotless, BUT WHO CARES!!!!! GLAD TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE HUMAN!! not one of his appointees served time time in jail for any of their crimes which means it ain't been serious enough to put them there. Maybe its good that they resigned because now we know who will crack under pressure and who will pressure crack under. Obama is president people.......GET THE PHUCK OUT HIS WAY AND LET THE MAN DO THE JOB WE ELECTED HIM TO DO!!

The REAL question here is, would they have paid if they had not been considered for Obama's cabinet? Absolutely not! One has to be incredibly stupid to overlook taxes of that magnitude and, if they really are that stupid, what is Obama doing considering them for his cabinet?

dwtjst,

The magnitude is relative. 120k+ might be huge to you it may be .0001% of another's net worth which would make it insignificant.

And, the NY Times is not alone in this. Other than Fox and talk radio, the media avoid saying anything negative about the king and his court. Even the late night comedians avoid telling any Obama jokes; they're still yucking it up with the same old Bush, Cheney, Palin material. The media are the whores of our society.

Come on that a bad name for whores, they're below lawyers.

don't blame the whores.at least the try to satisfy you.as far as the comedians go there all pinkoooos lettermen is the worst one with a bastard kid. and the rest of them are not far behind him as the media goes the can't even follow the commandments especialey no.2 and 9, as long as we know the truth don't worry about it.just give them enough rope.

lets take the bail out money and have a special election and get rid of all those dumm aszs.

Ron Adolph

spider-737231

SickOfTheLeft

e rawski

Those comment were a compleat waste of energy to read. Obama has been president for 2 weeks. Bush.....8 years. Bush brought his treatment by the media on himself. McCain made a specticle of himself everytime he stepped in front the camera, and Palin is just a pretty face covering an empty skull. Obama deserves atleast a year just for having the balls to take the white house at a time like this. I personally would have let the republicans have the country and finish driving us into the Ice age. Nobody agrees that McCain and for sure nuff as hell that pretty retard Palin would have done better.

Ya'll have

well onematt it shows definitely you are a pinkoo. palin forgot more then oabama will ever know and you know less then him.I really feel sorry for you, your life must be hell.go ask barney for a little help you need it don't for get your KY jelly.

onematt..You don't get it do you. You're in the dumbass pool just like the rest of the people the voted for Obama. Two weeks or 8 years, big deal. Obama is good at TALKING THE TALK but sucks at WALKING THE WALK. Comparing him to Bush is not the subject. The past is the past and it was certainly screwed up. Obama was to change the way Washington did business. Yeah Right. He a LIAR and he no clue about Ethics. Don't insult our intelligence.

What intelligence? It's been TWO WEEKS!!!!! I't don;t matter what policy he puts in places. ITS GONNA TAKE MORE THAN TWO WEEKS FOR IT TO SURFACE. I'm glad i'm not the president of this phucked up country and 50% of its inhabitants that wanna assume the NEW President isn't doing his job because world ain't saved two weeks after he takes office. Give the man time to "Walk the Walk" or keep them blind jugdemental comments to yourselves.

Obama was to change the way Washington did business

Once again....ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!

His appointments to his cabinet need to be CORRECT AND NOT CORRUPT. Bipartisan means to have both republicans and democrats coming together for a common cause. The President is the President and you know what, he shouldn't be allowed to make any mistakes that could be avoided. What are we going to do? Wait four years to have his screwed up policies changed. Can you live with that? We have lived with it for 8 years already and it seems to me that the American people are pissed off over it. He was elected for CHANGE and changing the bad ways we had done it before. He already has lobbyist in his administration after telling and preaching to the American people (including you) that he would not have them in his administration. He made that pretty clear to all of us. We gave Bush a blow job and let his failed policies run us into the ground. Now you expect the American people to wait and see what happens even after President Obama has lied to us already and showed us a lackadaisy performance in his first two weeks. Please, I voted for the man and I expected a lot more from him. What's your problem? You just don't care?

Please, I voted for the man and I expected a lot more from him. What's your problem? You just don't care?

I Baracked the vote too, but once again ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS, GIVE HIM TIME. You can't judge a man from what you hear in the media. Look at what he walked into. if i was Barack, I would not care about the persons past as long as its not a history of crime and murder. Its taxes, THAT THE MAN PAID!! No body cares when he paid it just so long as he paid it. These people act like they never been late on a bill.

he shouldn't be allowed to make any mistakes that could be avoided

When did he stop being human, In fact what was his mistake? I saw him hire someone who was MORE than Qualified to do the job of assisting us with our economy crisis....that just happen to be behind on taxes. Have you seen the seen the 1040 of someone that makes over 200,000. My goodnes it a maze where anyone could make a mistake, even tax "professionals" for example Look at Wesly Snipes, he had multiple Professionals doing his taxes all he did was put the papers in the mail. All of a sudded he owes MILLIONS in taxes that he thought was being paid, all that from one mistake on his documentation.

We don't know and now never will know what those so called crooks could have done to help this country. So what if they did not WANT to pay thier taxes. NAME ONE PERSON WALKIN AMERICAN SOIL THAT DO. I would not doubt if Bush will end up having tax issues. I worked at prison with some of worst crooks this world have to offer, Yet i learned more from them so called CROOKS than I did In 7 Yrs of school and B.S. and M.S.

onematt - I personally do not have anything against Daschle or any other Obama nominee. I believe in personal responsibly and forgiveness. The issue I have with Obama is where is the "change"? If I'm not mistaken we were promised that and I have yet to see it.

Seems like the same nominees and the same politics as usual to me. Which I don't even mind that but Obama did campaign on "change" and I feel like he should deliver, otherwise his entire 2 year campaign was a sham. Which, I thought it was a sham. I guess I want someone to admit to me that his campaign was a sham.

By the way it has not been 2 weeks, he started nominating and organizing Nov 7th. Remember?

not over it

He did started nominating but not electing. He couldn't start electing until he took office. Until then it was never clear who he was gonna choose.

The issue I have with Obama is where is the "change"? If I'm not mistaken we were promised that and I have yet to see it.

I know I'm beating a dead horse but again. How many changes can any 1 man make to a country 52 billion people deep, 200,000+ sq/mi, and the largest economy in the world.......IN TWO WEEKS. I'm a christian man with deep faith, BUT JESUS WOULD NEED AT LEAST A MONTH to change this county's politics. Worry not about the people ,he elect, and thier past. What can they do now is the question.

a country 52 billion people deep,

Sounds like someone went to the nancy pelosi school of census!

Current population: 305,753,468.

http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html

Check your facts before you pull numbers out of your a$$, (typical lib)!

a country 52 billion people deep,

Sounds like someone went to the nancy pelosi school of census!

Sounds like you missed the point!

Are you trying to say a lot less talk and a little more action?

No question about it. For whatever reason, I and many thousands if not millions, are finally beginning to understand, that to keep "talking", as we are, is exactly what the politicians love to see. It's when it hits them with Term Limits, ethics reform, pension, pay, and Lobbyist reform gets to them, that any constructive change will come. Nothing in short term, but, unless we start to remove these corrupt and clearly incompetent elected officials, we are indeed getting exactly the type government that we continually elect and then unbelievaly re-elect time after time. All the while bemoaning that our Government is so incorrigible.

Great post! I agree with you 100% . It is time for action. I am a Cuban American whom was blessed with the opportunity of coming to this great land for a better life. My parents worked 3 jobs each, I worked from the age of 14, put myself through college and proud to say I have never collected any government benefits. I live in a house I can afford, my cars are paid for and I have zero credit debt. All we ever wanted was the opportunity for a better life and we achieved it through hard work and responsibility.

We lost our country because we believed in the government and believed change was coming. The Government now owns the island.

Our Government may be corrupt but we still live in the best country in the world. We must do all we can to protect what America stands for and it is time to get rid of the lying cheats in Washington. No more excuses.

This bail out plan must be stopped. I've been writing letters, e-mails to our representatives and will continue to do so. Crash their servers with e-mails, send a letter a day. Do whatever it takes to get the message out.

I also agree with you; however, struggle at how exactly to accomplish change. Personally, I have decided the only way to get term limits, ethics reform or lobbyist reform is to send a clear message. I have two suggestions: 1. Change your party affiliation to Independent. If enough people do, I believe this will send a clear and very scary message to the current politicians. and 2. Do not vote for any elected official that has held office more than two terms during the next elections.

Fedup-378382

I am glad you're here. We need more good people like you and your family.

Mr. Richardson did the honorable thing by bowwing out when questions arose, so as not to bring conflict so early in the new administration. This lowlife has no such honor! It is not only his tax problem at issue here, but the way he has conducted himself after he was voted out of office.

WHAT AN IDIOT! WHERE HAVE U BEEN THIS PAST EIGHT YEARS ? please explain.Obama has been in for less than thirty days and already he is been blamed for everything. I personally dont understand this logic,can u please explain in simple english for someone like me.

Globug, you may be right about Obama and "ethics reform."

But, virtually all officials with experience in Washington seems to have skeletons in their closets. Obama at least seems to be doing background checks to find out about past problems and seeking to hold them accountable for future actions.

If these officials knowingly commit infractions in the future, I am strongly in favor of holding them accountable, in addition to currently seeking for them to make restitution where feasible for past ones. For now, I'll give Obama the benefit of the doubt on it.

I do hope that if indeed all experienced people have skeletons in the closet, Obama will seek to hire inexperienced but honest people and train them, where feasible.

Oldcavscout, that is an excellent question!

If virtually all the experienced people are at least a bit corrupt, it will be difficult to rain the new people?

That is one reason it is so hard to change the system. I advocate hiring some experienced people and holding them accountable as mentioned in previous comments, but also hiring numerous inexperienced people who have more integrity, and training them.

yea, that guy raped my wife but that's ok because he's sorry. But if he does it again boy, watch out. Great logic.

It is a totally false premise that all the experienced people are corrupt! False.

It would not be that hard to find someone honest to handle these posts, if they were looking in the right places. Right now, they are paying back campaign debts, and those folks are NOT honest.

That is where your wrong Kameel. Obama is standing for his principles.......his Chicago, Illinois criminal politician principles.

You are so right. Unfortunately people who never voted before came out to vote this time just to prove that a person of "color" can be put in the White House to lead the most powerful nation in the world. No one listened to him really they believed his lies that he would be able to make "change". Now we are stuck with a liar who puts people in powerful positions who have commited offenses that if the regular average citizen did they would be charged and jailed for. Try telling IRS your sorry you didn't pay your taxes. Yeah right. I didn't vote for this liar and I am proud to say I didn't. He is a dangerous man and is going to lead this once great nation into total disaster. I hope the next 4 years goes quickly and we will be able to vote someone into office who can really clean up the absolute mess that is called Washington.

Yeah, let a Republican nominate any of these tax evading crooks and they would be crusified by the DEM's and the media, but hey they were appointed by DEM's so their OK! I'm not a Bible thumber however; I think we need to bring some, dare I say it!       " religion " back to the government. By the way THAT is what it was based upon from the start!

Amen Mimi!! I told my Democrat friends, but nooooooooooooo......

Thanks to the Florida vote counting debacle, Bush had far less time to put together, vett his appointees and take advantage of the opportunity for a "normal" transitional period than Obama has been afforded. But why worry about small things like facts when you can always rely on revisionist history.

Pete........ You are so right I have several neighbors that have been beating all of us up that didn't vote for Obama, They have quieted down now and have shown signs of remorse for there stupidity, But now we will have 4 yrs. of the same old crap with a different leader. Nothing has or will change. The best we can do is vote out the Senate and congressmen in a couple years and get a new prez. in four yrs. then there will be some miner change ( May be;) the American people are being lied to all the time and follow the leaders like cattle in to the slaughter house.... Hold on tight everyone it is going to be a bumpy ride for the next four yrs.........

Pete, they only way to send any message to this government is for NOBODY to vote at all. We should instead fire them all replace them with Americans not politicians. Establish Anti-lobbing laws, and restructure government pay scales to a more average paycheck.

There are many solutions but the problem is " the majority of people want to go to heaven but don't want to die" I mean they want change but don't want to do anything. Even with the election of Obama, there wasn't a massive turnout to vote like everyone was predicting, it was primarily the Hispanic vote, they were for immigration so they embraced the Dem party line and voted Dem. When you look at the voting stats they were pretty much in line with the last election in 04, they just shifted around a bit, but that is what made the difference, it was a strategic election. My point is people love to whine and complain about thinngs but when its time to take action they leave the fighting to someone else. Sure Obama had his Obamatrons out in full force chanting " Change we can believe in", sure he had massive rallies, sure people were crying like they were in the presence of a Diety but none of that really translated into a movement that resulted in the equivalent in votes. I 2010 there will be somne changes but Obama is president for the next four years, all we can hope is DC doesnt sell us down the river, burdeining us with debt that doesnt help fix the problem we are facing today. Im hopeful but also realistic.

there is not Social Security account with money in it. It has been spent to set up more social programs to buy votes.

Social Security is a government sanctioned Ponzi Scheme, for it to work you need an ever increasing number of investors (tax payers) the problem is the number paying has been and will continue to decline as families have less children, sooner or later the SS system will collapse the same way it did for Bernie Madoff. The only difference is nobody will be going to jail for perpetrating this fraud on the American people.

There is at least one guy in Obama's administration I actually feel sorry for. That little, wimpy, Gibbs, the press secretary. He is getting roasted at the press conferences and just stumbles and mumbles his way through them. I give him till possibly May and he'll resign. Too much abuse coming his way.

Gibbs has to be the worst Press Secretary I have ever seen.

Yea, but he'll clean up when he writes his book....

All candidates make promises during the campaign, but I've seen presidential campaigns since the 1970's and imo obama easily set the record for most promises. This makes it even worse that he's not fulfilling even the easiest ones on his administration appointees.

I agree. Obama was elected ( and I did vote for him) because of apparent integrity and hope of change to come. On some counts, he is succeeding. Daschle isn't one of them. Sure, Obama owed Daschle for all of Daschle's campaigning and rounding up the superdelegates. But Daschle owed it to Obama to come with a clean past. Daschle shouldn't have waited till after the election to have his taxes audited. That indicates intent to avoid payment if Obama lost.

I can let Geitner slide because I don't think there are many that could fill that position. But Daschle should be cut loose. He's an embarrassment to an administration that pledged accountability and transparency in the eyes of the Amercan public and that of the world. Even now, I'll bet foreign nations, especially the Muslim ones, are shaking their heads that it's just politics as usual in the US.

You have to remember that Obama got 53% of the vote. By now, I doubt if he has 53% support for these nominations.

Surely there are some people of character that can be found to fill these administration positions.

The problem is that for most of his life, Obama did not know people of good character. His friends were anti-American terrorists, communists, socialists, anti-White racists, crooks, criminals, Palestinian militants, and Chicago thugs. Now, compared to the likes of those people, Daschle or anyone who has not murdered/tried to murder American citizens, is a saint. Is it any wonder that unethical scumbags that Obama has been putting in office are the 'best qualified' that he knows?

Read abut Obama's life. Now that the election is over, many of the details are no longer being hidden. I would not like anyone who has been friends with those that he preferred to keep company with to live next to me, let alone govern my country. He terrifies me.

someone earlier mentioned the Rangel rule. Named after Charlie Rangel, ranking member on House ways and means committee (that actually write tax laws), who failed to pay some taxes due also.

It is a tax law just proposed by republican congressman, John Carter, from my home state of Texas. It would eliminate penalties and interest for people paying taxes late. It's honestly not a good idea, at least on interest, but will be interesting to see how Dems respond to the bill, since if it's okay for Administration appointees, it should be okay for average Joe.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/28/gop-congressman-intros-rangel-rule-eliminating-irs-late-fees/

Do you know how the recall process works?

All you folks who have ever had an inkling of recalling someone, need to do what is needed, to research the subject with your sup. of elections, or sec. of state. While you are there, find out what it takes, to get an issue on the ballot for the next election, as I believe this is the next first step, to solving all these things . Term-limits, pension abolishment, recall elections, spending limits, balanced-budget items, will all probably require the "voter" to decide. We should all be very forceful when asking questions of the person in charge, and who should be able to answer ANYTHING you might ask in these areas, as it is THEIR JOB to enforce whatever it takes to make these happen. The soap box and ballot box are still available to us, so we should proceed at warp speed to accomplish these things, before the ability "disappears". Mr Scott will not be around for more power, so the time to do this is now. Up to us?
ABSOLUTELY

For those of you in the cheap seats, TREASON=DEATH! New bumper sticker for B-HO. If obama is the awnser, then it must have been a really stupid question!

Ranger and tx01yota,

In today's society treason is punishable by up to a life sentence. Technically speaking the death penalty can only be applied to treason in the event of some grievous breach of national security, i.e: providing vital intelligence to an enemy nation. A precedent was set when the Rosenbergs were executed in the fifties. Since then, if my history is correct and I'm sure someone will call me on it if it's not, we have imprisoned traitors unless they committed murder while in the act of betraying this nation.

Having said that, the Constitution of the United States is one of the most mis-quoted documents ever penned. As far as I can see none of our presidents, and surely none in the past forty years, have violated either the spirit or the letter of the constitution. For those of you who believe President Bush violated the Constitution by sending troops into Iraq, Afghanistan, Indonesia or any of the other hot spots around the globe you are mistaken. He sought and gained the approval of congress in accordance with the law. The wiretapping may have skirted the line on privacy issues but the right to private conversations is not guaranteed by law. This is why courts can legally issue warrants to tap your phone, monitor your internet usage and use listening devices to record your conversations if you are under suspicion of criminal activity.

As for President Obama, poor judgment in choosing appointees does not equal treason. I think he exercised poor judgment with several of his cabinet picks and I don't like the fact that he chooses to overlook these obvious legal and character flaws in their records. However, he is not he first president, and I doubt he'll be the last, to do so.

If the quote by Mr. Daschle is correct ("Mr. Daschle.. said he had “no excuse” and wanted to “deeply apologize” for his failure to pay $128,000 in federal taxes") he should be investigated by the I.R.S. and prosecuted just like any other citizen who commits fraud. If found guilty he should be punished. This, at least, is cut and dry.

cade-410364

Thank you for your clarifying comments. I can appreciate that there have been no "technical" violations of our Constitution. However, I must disagree that our country's leadership has abided in the spirit and letter of it. When laws, rules, benefits and policy - even if legally voted into law - do not represent the best interest of the country or provide for unequal treatment under the rule of law for those in power, then I perceive that as a deliberate, systemic abuse. Yes...there is not legal recourse in "pinning" treason on these lawmakers...but that is what it effectively amounts to.

On the other hand, you get what you voted into power...so shame on us.

You hit the heart of the matter on accountability in your last paragraph...and that is to prosecute to the fullest extent those who violate that law, period. I would support leniency based on service if appropriate...but quite frankly, that Daschle would choose to do "the wrong thing" calls into questions the merit of his past service anyway.

Just remember where this little country called America began....as a breakaway from a government that had religious persecution and taxation without representation. I sense that we face more similarities today than we are willing to admit that the government we created looks more like the one we original fought to get away from.

Hey, Cade, you just hit the nail right on the head! Don't you know good ole King George is just rolling around in his grave, laughing his crazy head off & thinking "stupid Americans just waltzed right out of my frying pan and into their own fire...love it, love it, love it!!!"

Maybe we should change the way we address Obama and start calling him "King Barack".

You will be know as the president that killed the hopes of a nation.

Perhaps, but IMO I believe a better statement would be:

How ill-informed were the masses to truly believe in this man? How could they look past his known associates and believe when in office it would be "different."

Hope and change.............what a joke. At least I can honestly say while I did not vote for the man, I truly hoped I was the skeptical pessimistic minority. I would gladly be proven wrong.

Hope and change...........RFCMEO. A sad day for my kids future.

Keith Olbermann also having some tax issues. Older news, but to best of info available still some questions out there.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-sheffield/2008/05/31/keith-olbermann-becomes-latest-liberal-pundit-tax-warrant

And of course don't forget Al franken. He's got problems also.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/8145

We could balance budget jsut by getting Dems to pay taxes. Maybe that's Obama's plan. Give them all a cabinet position so they pay taxes.

Librals are blind and deaf too, obviously!

jail time with Bubba( who by the way is HIV pos.)