Timothy Geithner is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, an increasingly high-profile cabinet position in light of the current financial troubles at home and abroad.

Unfortunately, Mr Geithner appears to be one of those elitists who behave as if laws were made only for little people.  As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the nominee failed to pay self-employment related taxes between 2001-2004.  To add insult to injury, Mr Geithner also employed an immigrant worker whose work authorization expired during her employment by Mr Geithner, yet he did nothing to give the then illegal alien the old heave-ho.

In the WSJ article, unnamed Obama aides are quoted as being dismissive of the infractions, claiming they were minor and Mr Geithner's nomination to a post supposedly crucial to managing the on-going economic crisis means he should get a free pass.

We disagree.  Obama and his crew have already gotten plenty of free passes, and they seem to be getting a little too used to the idea.

For a period of 6 years or so we here at The Stupid Nation were self-employed, and we paid the same types of taxes Mr. Geithner failed to pay for four years (2003/2004 non-payments were caught by the IRS during an audit and 2001/2002 were  'oopsed' - forgotten so the claim goes).  We find the oopsy-daisy excuse to be entirely not credible.  How do you get audited by the IRS, get cited for non-payment of taxes for two years, and not immediately realize you didn't pay the exact same taxes in years prior?  Come on!  Sorry Mr. Geithner, this one doesn't pass the giggle test, not by a long shot.  The illegal alien is just the cherry on the cake, and reflective of Mr. Geithner's rather lax interest in compliance with the laws of the land.  For any elitist, left or right, we are not surprised.  But it is unacceptable nonetheless.

During the Clinton Administration , Zoe Baird was forced to withdraw from AG nomination because she employed an illegal alien couple, and also failed to pay taxes on their earnings.  Subsequently, Judge Kimba M. Wood withdrew from the same AG nomination ostensibly because she employed an illegal alien, though she did pay taxes.  Subsequent to that mini-fiasco, Bobby Ray Inman, Clinton nominee for Defense Secretary also revealed that he too didn't pay taxes on hired help, though his withdrawal from nomination was rather bizarre, and can't be directly attributed to the tax dodging.

Between the Wood and Inman controversies, the Clinton Administration tried to relax the standards for nominees so they wouldn't be torpedoed by their tax scofflaw activity.   Of course this was/is bad policy brought on by a then President who had many ethical challenges of his own, and therefore, could not comprehend that public officials should be held to the highest standards of conduct.

Even though the Clinton's tried to relax the standards for nominees, President G.W. Bush's first nomination for Labor Secretary, Linda Chavez, was forced to withdraw after revelations about housing an illegal alien and providing that person with cash in exchange for cleaning services, though Chavez denied she employed the cleaning house-guest.

Thus, there is plenty of precedent for nominees getting the boot because they couldn't be bothered following the law.  The one-two-three punch for Geithner - first that the IRS caught a tax non-payment, second that Geithner didn't immediately fess-up to the two prior years, and third employing an illegal alien, does not meet necessarily high standards of conduct for high governmental official.

Obama nominee for Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, still carries a foul waft from the Blago-gate scandal.  Bill Richardson was compelled to withdraw due to the pall of an investigation back home, though he professed his innocence.  Now Geithner.  A pattern?  Obama comes out of the notoriously corrupt Chicago political landscape.  He seems completely aloof and unconcerned by the ethical and criminal lapses of those surrounding him.  Let's also not forget that Obama is an admitted former cocaine user, and in case you're not aware, using cocaine is illegal, and in many parts of the nation, a felony.     The Stupid Nation may accept lower standards of conduct for public officials, but we never will.

Now let us pause and remind the reader that when Sarah Palin was selected as McCain's running mate, and several lingering controversies surfaced immediately regarding 'trooper-gate', and her daughters' pregnancy, all those talking heads soundly criticized the McCain campaign for the terrible choice made, and what were McCain's vetting team smoking and so on.    And where are these critics now?  Why, they're in Obama's back pocket, of course!

PS.  We too were audited by the IRS back when we were self-employed - we passed with flying colors.  Uncle Sam got every dime due.  Every dime.