James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles, Mary Landrieu

Many on the left have spent the past few months trying to dig up and manufacture dirt on Hannah Giles in retaliation for her work in exposing the corruption and fraud at ACORN.

In this week's news comes the (at this point) strange case of her partner in the ACORN expose' - James O'Keefe - who was apparently arrested in the early steps of a similar investigation into the offices of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Few people are asking what it was that O'Keefe was trying to investigate at Landrieu's office. Whatever it was, it was probably worse than what O'Keefe may have actually done. I could feel more sympathy for those who are now calling for O'Keefe's head if it weren't for what the same people have tried to do to Hannah Giles.

Whatever it was that O'Keefe was up to, it apparently was not "wiretapping" (although it would have been nice to catch Landrieu in a Blagojevitch-type conversation with the White House after her Louisiana Purchase payoff fell through in the wake of the collapse of Obamacare).

Sandi Vito; Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's nominee for labor secretary; "Public Drunkenness"

Obama's appointees at the federal level are not the only Democrat appointees with legal trouble. Democrat appointees at the state level are in plenty of legal hot water of their own. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Governor Ed Rendell has appointed Sandi Vito as Pennsylvania Labor Secretary.

PA Labor Secretary - nominee Sandi Vito


















On Wednesday night (March 11, 2009), Ms. Vito was charged with public drunkenness at a downtown Harrisburg hotel:

A spokesman for Gov. Ed Rendell says the charge wasn't work-related and that it's too early to say what, if any, discipline may result.

Vito is awaiting Senate confirmation of her nomination to serve as labor secretary on a permanent basis.

She was previously chief of staff to a Democratic state senator and political director of the state Democratic Party.

Ms. Vito is currently the Acting Secretary:

As Acting Secretary, Vito heads the fifth-largest agency of Pennsylvania state government, overseeing more than 6,000 employees in 200 offices statewide that serve the worker and business interests of the commonwealth. Through the administration of programs such as workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, job retraining and vocational rehabilitation, along with its numerous enforcement and regulatory responsibilities, the Department directly affects the daily lives of millions of workers and the more than 250,000 employers in Pennsylvania.

While this photo is not of Ms. Vito, it brings to mind an interesting point. I would rather that the Democrat cabinet officials be drunk and passed out than have them alert and meddling with our economy. We are better off with the Democrats looking like this than devising new ways to burn our childrens' money. I propose that instead of hosting tea parties, we begin hosting whiskey parties, in which we collect as much alcohol as we can for delivery to the White House, Congress and various cabinet offices. Maybe then they will leave us alone for a while.
not Sandi Vito

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update (afternoon 3-13-09) - Ms. Vito has announced that she will enter into a treatment program. Governor Rendell still wants her for the job. I guess that Ms. Vito, like Tim Giethner, is the only one that can do the job.
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update - The Centre Daily Times has more. Republicans in the Senate are at least demanding more information before rolling over on her nomination.

Obama cabinet nominee tax issues; Tom Daschle; Tim Geithner, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis; Porkulus

I have lost count of the number of Obama nominees that have been caught failing to report and/or pay taxes. Daschle, Geithner, Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis are the names I remember. [Commerce secretary designate Bill Richardson withdrew because of a Blagojevich-like problem in New Mexico.] Upon the nomination being made public, all of these people suddenly paid their taxes.

Powerline commented on a supposedly positive result from these scandals:

Still, there is always a silver lining. One good thing about electing a Democrat as President is that, as he nominates fellow Democrats to senior positions in the Executive Branch, millions of dollars in unpaid tax liabilities come to light and are belatedly paid to the IRS, with interest. It is, perhaps, the most tangible advantage of electing Democrats to office.

Michelle Malkin posts more details.

I am not sure that I agree that the payment of these taxes is a good thing. We have seen how the federal government will spend the money. Free market principles would tell us that it is better for the Democrat cabinet nominees to keep the money and spend it themselves according to their own desires.

Would you rather that that the money be spent on (1) alchohol, adultery, prostitutes, illegal drugs, pornography, illegal campaign activities, etc. or on (2) honey insurance, fish barriers, green schools, walking trails, STD's and ACORN? While some of these categories are overlapping, your choice of where the money should be spent will determine whether you think it is best that Obama's cabinet nominees have finally paid their taxes.

Mark Steyn made a valid point yesterday:

The bloated nonstimulus and the undertaxed nominees are part of the same story. I'm with Tom Daschle: I understand why he had no desire to toss another six-figure sum into the great sucking maw of the federal Treasury. Who knows better than a senator who's voted for every tax increase to cross his desk that all this dough is entirely wasted? Tom and Tim Geithner and Charlie Rangel and all the rest are right: They can do more good with the money than the United States government can. I only wish they followed the logic of their behavior and recognized that what works for them would also work for every other citizen. Instead, they insist that the sole solution to our woes is a record-setting wasteful government spending spree.

Even though it is good to point out the hypocrisy of the Democrat nominees, we should not forget that we are opposed to taxation on principle. The Porkulus bill is a perfect example of why we are opposed to taxation.

Mark Steyn; How Barney Frank's gay lover caused the Fannie Mae collapse; Herb Moses

Mark Steyn comments on another aspect of the financial crisis for which taxpayers must now suffer:

Last week in this space, I made a jocular reference to a global economy "so
vulnerable that only the stalwart action of Barney Frank stands between it and
ten years of soup kitchens". I tittered too soon. It turns out the
entire planetary meltdown is due to Congressman Frank's sex life:

. . . . . . . .
Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home
improvement lending programs."
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage
meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its
financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad
mortgages throughout the private financial sector...
. . . . . . . . .

while the old Moses parted the red sea, the new Moses drowned us in one.

See also this.

So it appears that taxpayers will now pay $700,000,000,000 for Barney Frank's failed gay relationship. The Moses/Frank partnership will turn out to be the most expensive gay marriage in history.

- In the 1970's (and before), gay bathhouses were responsible for the spread of aids throughout the western world (although the left undoubtedly blames George W. Bush (and, by extension, John McCain (and Sarah Palin's downs syndrome baby))).

- In the 1990's, Fannie Mae became a financial gay bathhouse, spreading the financial equivalent of aids throughout the economy of the western world.

Fannie Mae


[See the analysis of how even this was made possible only by the Federal Reserve policy of credit expansion during the credit boom of the 1990's.]