Another Tax Dodger In The Most Transparent Administration EVAH

I think this has gone beyond ridiculous, and into the realm of serious pre-requisite for a Cabinet post:

Remember, [Kathleen Sebelius, Governor of Kansas] was the “safe” choice for HHS after Daschle got dinged for — that’s right — not paying his taxes.

By CBS’s count, this is the sixth nominee to have tax trouble. Yes, really.

In the letter, which was sent to senators and dated today, Sebelius wrote that she had made changes related to charitable contributions, business expenses and the sale of a home, according to the AP.

The wire service reports that she and her husband paid just over $7,000 in back taxes, along with $878 in interest, for the years 2005-2007…

On the charitable contributions front, she writes that she could not locate three acknowledgment letters out of her 49 charitable contributions in excess of $250, and thus eliminated those three deductions.

She also writes that she had “insufficient documentation” for some of her tax dedications for business expenses, though because of the Alternative Minimum Tax they did not affect the amount owed. She also said she mistakenly paid off a home loan that included deductable mortgage interest.

The Standard has a copy of the letter, in which she claims not to have noticed the errors until she asked a CPA to vet her returns from 2005-07 as preparation for her Senate confirmation. Exit question: Why didn’t a CPA at least catch the error on mortgage interest when the returns were originally prepared? Or do we have another implausible case here, a la Geithner, of a public official — the governor of Kansas, in this case — using Turbo Tax or something to do her own returns? Don’t politicians use accountants anymore?

It's no wonder Obama is having such a hard time filling the top-level positions in his administration - none of them are clean! What a great way to start out, huh? What a great example for the nation from the most transparent administration EVAH!

You know, if Obama would start nominating more Democrats to top posts, we might actually make some significant progress on the national debt - it appears that that's the only time they ever bother to pay their taxes! But don't worry, I'm sure she'll be confirmed...I'm guessing someone will say she's the only one qualified to do the job at HHS, or something along those lines. And hey, it's only seven grand. Geithner got away with far worse tax evasion, so the precedent has been set well above a measly $7,000.

But don't you get any ideas, oh no...

There's my two cents.