Obama and His Ethical Judgment: 2 articles

Obama spokesman defends ethics standards

Feb 3 03:18 PM US/Eastern

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite the tax problems faced by high-level nominees, and the exceptions made to the no-lobbyists pledge, President Barack Obama's spokesman is defending the administration's ethical standards.

Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday, "The bar that we set is the highest that any administration in the country has ever set."

During a briefing filled with questions about Tom Daschle's decision to withdraw from consideration to be Health and Human Services secretary, Gibbs pointed to experts who describe the administration's ethics rules as the strongest in history.

He also said those experts recognized that Obama would need to make exceptions to his pledge to run an administration free of former lobbyists.

Obama's choice to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department recently lobbied for military contractor Raytheon. And his choice as deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate.


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Obama performance chief Killefer out, citing taxes

Feb 3 03:55 PM US/Eastern
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nancy Killefer withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government on Tuesday, saying she didn't want her bungling of payroll taxes on her household help to become a distraction for the Obama administration.

Killefer was the second major nominee to withdraw. Within hours, former Sen. Tom Daschle also withdrew his nomination to be secretary of health and human services.

Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, withdrew when his confirmation appeared headed toward complications because of a grand jury investigation over how state contracts were issued to political donors.

More recently, Tim Geithner was confirmed as Treasury secretary despite belatedly paying $34,000 in income taxes, and Daschle acknowledged his late payment of more than $128,000 in income taxes.

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Ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ha ha ha ha

Honestly, can anyone listen to them with a straight face.

Amazing you can make these statements as if they are true. Do you believe by saying such patently false statements that people will believe you?


No Mr. Gibbs, the fact Richardson pulled oput, Daschle dropped out, and Killefer surrendered to the inevitable does NOT mean you have the highest standards. If you did, you would not have nominated the individuals BECAUSE they have such huge flaws - flaws your review process would have found or did find and ignored. It was NOT Obama who told Daschle to give up, or Richardfson, or Killefer ... the nominee did, AFTER they had gone through the process with that very high bar you set, just above ankle level.

On the other hand - maybe, with the help of the media, you can get away with it:

More recently, Tim Geithner was confirmed as Treasury secretary despite belatedly paying $34,000 in income taxes, and Daschle acknowledged his late payment of more than $128,000 in income taxes.

Belatedly paying, and a late payment ... I can only imagine what they would have written had it been a Republican.





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