Thread: Obama nominee withdraws after failing to pay tax

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's nominee to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government has withdrawn after earlier failing to pay tax on household help, the White House said Tuesday. "Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal," said Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman.
The White House later released her letter to the president, which in part stated: "I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your Chief Performance Officer are urgent. I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. Unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid. Because of this I must reluctantly ask you to withdraw my name from consideration."

source

Tom is out too

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.
"Now we must move forward," Obama said in a written statement accepting "with sadness and regret" Daschle's surprise request to be removed from consideration. A day earlier, Obama had said he "absolutely" stood by Daschle in the face of problems over back taxes and potential conflicts of interest.

Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader and a strong backer of Obama's presidential bid, said he would have been unable to operate "with the full faith of Congress and the American people."

"I am not that leader, and will not be a distraction" to Obama's agenda, he said.

This is all a horrible blow to Obama's secret plan to reduce the deficit, by appointing tax evaders to government positions in order to get them to pay their back taxes.

It's really a shame that after all the rhetoric of the campaign about how huge the difference is between the parties and their politicians is. We've been shown again how when you take away the party label and the sloganeering, you get a bunch of manipulators who can barely be trusted to follow a law, if there isn't a camera around watching them.