New Obama tax outrage: Nominee leaves IRS refunds unclaimed!

There's word this morning that a major, unexpected appointee to the unfolding administration of President Barack Obama has quietly withdrawn his name from White House consideration.

A White House source declined to identify the nominee to save him from bipartisan mortification. But apparently as part of the crack Obama transition team's vetting process, they discovered that the nominee had paid all of his federal taxes through 2008.

Not only that, but the would-be nominee had, in fact, overpaid his federal income taxes since 2005.

Worse, he has yet to claim any refunds from the Internal Revenue Service, even when his oversights were repeatedly pointed out to him by a team of administration lawyers. This has left the federal government holding several thousand dollars that belong instead to the taxpayer.

Given the lengthening record of back-tax problems with numerous other administration appointments this year -- Tom Daschle, Timothy F. Geithner, Nancy Kelleher, Hilda Solis' husband, and, just yesterday, Kathleen Sebelius -- the nominee was said to feel that proceeding with his appointment and the predictable array of awkward questions surrounding such inexplicable behavior would be a major distraction to a governmental administration facing such serious challenges as how to live up to five-year automotive warranties during a four-year presidential term.

The nominee, a Washington veteran who wants to spend more time with his family, knew that his inadvertent oversights totaling some $8,800 were insignificant in a city where sums of money with 10 zeroes are routinely described as "a small percentage of total spending" without laughter. And he knew full well he'd be appearing before an open Senate committee dominated by fellow party members totally in the tank for him before they flossed that day.

But he felt that given the state of the nation's economy on April 1, just 15 days before the income tax deadline for regular people, and the rowdy tenor of politics on Capitol Hill right now, it would be politically untenable to explain in public hearings how any normal American, let alone an appointed federal official in Washington, could conceivably leave such a sum of his own money unpocketed in this day and age.

More details if they emerge on this April Fool's Day.

-- Andrew Malcolm

It is true, however, that if you click here, you can register for instant Twitter alerts to each new Ticket item.

Will Leon Panetta be the next body under Obama's bus?

It's been a bumpy few days on the new Obama administration bus, what with all the bodies throwing themselves under the shiny chassis -- Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer and the ones yet to come from the transition team that missed the bones in Bill Richardson's closet and Daschle's and Geithner's and Killefer's tax returns.

In public, stand-up political bosses like Barack Obama are, well, stand-up, obediently shouldering the full blame like medicine from Mom. Americans like that and turn very forgiving when they hear it. So, Obama did that so sincerely and stoically on every TV network last night.

The buck stops here and all that, which drew hearty praise today from Robert Gibbs, Obama's own press secretary. But, in private, those bosses really, really don't like to have to do that. And someone will pay. If he/she hasn't already.

Meanwhile, word outta Washington late today that the congressional confirming committees, also embarrassed, are taking a closer look at the documents of some preexisting Obama nominees such as, oh, say, former California representative, Bill Clinton chief of staff and proposed CIA chief Leon Panetta. The Senate Intelligence Committee (no, that's not being sarcastic) takes up Panetta on Thursday morning.

Apparently, his reports to ethics officials indicate the onetime congressman who hung around Washington anyway is now worth nearly $4 million, which makes hanging around Washington seem a worthy pastime for washed-up pols. Last year Panetta took in about $1.2 million in investments, consulting and speaking fees, plus other income from corporate boards like BP and banks that have now failed or taken bailout money like Wachovia. Let's all do that.

All this despite being so intimately involved in the Obama campaign.

Panetta also got thousands of dollars from at least one security-related company that he might be dealing with from his secret CIA director's office in the Langley Batcave that carries the annoyingly Republican Bush name on it.

Panetta's appointment hit its first bump minutes after the announcement when committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein revealed in one of those too-controlled voices that she had not been informed in advance, a very serious breach of political manners in the Washington world that's akin to loud burping at the queen's dinner.

Now our blogging pal Mark Silva in the Swamp has more details on the developing Panetta problems, indicating some senators may have more questions in the morning.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Register here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo credit: Associated Press

Ticket Notice: Sunday shows--Obama, Summers, Axelrod, Emanuel

ABC's "This Week": David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President-elect Obama; a round-table with PBS' Gwen Ifill, ABC News' Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd and George Will, and E.J. Dionne of Brookings. Moderator: George Stephanopoulos.

CBS' "Face the Nation": National Economic Council director-designate Lawrence Summers, Georgetown University's Michael Eric Dyson and Slate's John Dickerson. Moderator: Bob Schieffer.

CNN's "State of the Union" with host John King (new program replacing "Late Edition"): Topics include the economy; national security, the media; the historic nature of the inauguration. President-elect Barack Obama; David Axelrod, senior Obama adviser; Ed Gillespie, Bush White House counselor; Howard Kurtz with Dana Perino, Bush White House press secretary, and Dee Dee Myers, former Clinton press secretary; diversity in the press with Dan Lothian, CNN White House correspondent, and April Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks.

"Fox News Sunday": Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and White House Press Secretary-designate Robert Gibbs. A panel with Brit Hume, "Fox News" senior political analyst; Mara Liasson, NPR & "Fox News"; Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard & "Fox News"; and Juan Williams, NPR. Moderator: Chris Wallace.

NBC's "Meet the Press": Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff-designate; Tom Brokaw, NBC News; David Brooks, New York Times; Doris Kearns Goodwin, historian; Tavis Smiley of PBS; and Chuck Todd, NBC political director.

-- Andrew Malcolm

We'll have loads of free coverage of the real Obama inauguration and the new administration on The Ticket. Register here for cellphone alerts on each new item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press

Online petition of Obama grows for new Cabinet post

Looks like President Barack Obama will pretty much have the top people in place for the new administration that starts with his inauguration at the Capitol next Tuesday, late morning Eastern time.

There's a last-minute problem with his proposed secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, who employed an illegal alien and forgot to pay some taxes for several years. And Bill Richardson has gone back to govern New Mexico after descriptions of an ongoing federal grand jury 'pay-to-play' investigation of his office forced him to withdraw as secretary of Commerce.

But now comes word from our colleague Lisa Fung over on the Culture Monster blog that there's a growing online effort afoot to petition Obama for a new Cabinet spot. Lisa's got the whole story and the link over here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Register here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're now on Amazon's Kindle as well. 

Move along, folks. Nothing here but the tax truant Obama wants at Treasury

So there we were driving along on the interstate enroute to do a public service TV ad about safe driving practices for regular Americans who didn't go to Harvard and once worked for the World Bank and we were getting directions to the studio on a cellphone. And a state trooper made us late by pulling us over.

It seems he thought 80 miles an hour in a 65 zone was excessive and it also seems that using a cellphone and texting blog items while driving is now illegal for some inconvenient government-imposed reason. Also something about wearing a seatbelt.

All of which we knew because we speak English often and have noticed the seatbelt and speed signs every 150 feet across America. But we were busy with our own work, which is more important than some silly rules clearly written for other more simple people to obey. And our legal record is exemplary, except for that neighborhood association letter about the hockey net in the driveway.

As soon as the trooper caught us red-handed, we told the officer with the large gun and one-way sunglasses that it was just an honest mistake.

Which we would correct immediately by hanging up, logging out and buckling up. How's that?

And you'll never guess which senate cloakroom he told us to shove that into.

Anyway, what we were blogging was the news that the Senate nomination hearing for Barack Obama's Treasury secretary-designate Timothy F. Geithner has been delayed.

So now he won't be sworn in until after the Great Changer's inauguration ceremony next week. If ever.

Geithner is a huge expert on money, having run a Federal Reserve Bank and planned important parts of the important economic stimulus package for the important president-elect to impose on regular people.

But someone pointed out to Geithner that he had a little issue about employing a housekeeper who became an illegal immigrant and that he knew so much about money that he did not pay his own income taxes.

Who in this busy life would ever think of paying income taxes each April? There's never anything about April 15 in the media. And who's got time to read that stuff anyway when you're busy coming up with financial rules for other people to obey?

That missing unpaid tax sum is now up to $48,000 with interest and penalties -- owed, by the way, to one of the departments that Geithner would run if he ever became Treasury secretary. All because of some silly laws written by government for unimportant, unhurried people to obey.

Now that it's come out, Geithner says it was an honest mistake. And transition people told senators more than a month ago. Which means, what -- the watchdogs were busy doing their taxes?

And today the president-elect said the same thing, that it was all unintentional. Nothing much here. And Obama added that once caught, Geithner paid the tardy taxes in full.

So what's the problem that a would-be Treasury chief violated tax laws? Let's get on with the confirmation hearing because he's a really smart guy who's done good things. And he's a Democrat who can be excused such trivial oversights. The same way, say, Rep. Henry Waxman would overlook a similar problem of Dick Cheney's.

Geithner is so smart, in fact, that he'll probably grab a bus over to that Senate cloakroom someday soon.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Yes, of course, the Ticket can peek into anyone's tax records. But what's important is that you avoid any embarrassing difficulties by registering here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Top photo: Associated Press

Bottom Photo: Treasury secretary-designate Timothy F. Geithner. Credit: Joe Tabacca /  Bloomberg

Ticket Notice: Sunday TV-Bush I & II, Obama I, Pelosi, Cheney, Cosby

ABC This Week: President-elect Barack Obama and a round table with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the New York Times' Tom Friedman, Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan and ABC's George Will.

CBS Face the Nation: House Minority Leader John Boehner, Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen.-designate Roland Burris. Moderator: Bob Schieffer.

CNN Late Edition: Vice President Dick Cheney, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ex-presidential advisor David Gergen, Washington Times' Tara Wall, Democratic strategist James Carville, CNN's Gloria Borger and Candy Crowley. Moderator: Wolf Blitzer.

Fox News Sunday: President George W. Bush and former President George H.W. Bush; round table with Bill Kristol, Weekly Standard & Fox News; Mara Liasson, NPR & Fox News; Charles Krauthammer, columnist & Fox News; Juan Williams, NPR & Fox News. Moderator: Chris Wallace.

NBC Meet the Press: Bill Cosby, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, Rep. Maxine Waters; round table of former Rep. David Bonior, Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot, CNBC's John Harwood, Vanity Fair's Bethany McLean and McCain economic advisor Mark Zandi. Moderator: David Gregory.

And if those folks aren't sufficient to get you angry after church, John Cardarelli e-mails us that someone named Ann Coulter is going to be on that network's "Washington Journal" program Sunday morning. As with Cosby, a new book. (UPDATE: John e-mails that the Coulter appearance has been cancelled. So, you'll have to scroll back through some of our previous items to get your weekend ire going. Or there's always the editorial page; but they use such big words over there.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of church, you can register here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo credit: Eric Draper / White House

Too late, but Bill Ayers has Cabinet advice for pal Obama

Catching up: With the election over, Bill Ayers has a new part-time job. You may remember him as Sen. John McCain's favorite washed-up terrorist, the co-founder of the Weather Underground '60s radical  group.

The Republicans tried to turn the Ayers-Obama Chicago friendship and joint education reform work into a vague extremist conspiracy, suggesting dark things about the Democratic candidate's hidden agendas.

Well, now that the election is over and it's safe to speak out as Barack Obama will be officially elected president of these United States today by the archaic Electoral College system in Washington, with the inauguration to come in 12 days, Ayers has written a column on Huffington Post, the world's top-ranked blog.

His most recent effort takes Hyde Park neighbor Obama to task for his Cabinet choices, especially Arne Duncan as Education secretary.

Acknowledging that Duncan, who's been heading Chicago public schools, was "the smart choice, the unity choice," Ayers also calls him "a failed urban superintendent," saying Duncan's among many who "have little to show in terms of school improvement."

"Obama is not a monarch," Ayers states, "Arne Duncan is not education czar -- and we are not his subjects."

Ayers says his own Cabinet choices, among others, would have been his wife, fellow radical Bernardine Dohrn as attorney general, Noam Chomsky as secretary of State, Paul Krugman as the Treasury chief, Naomi Klein at the Defense Department and Amy Goodman as White House press secretary.

"So what do I know?" he asks.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Even Chicagoans are allowed to receive cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item; just register here. RSS feeds are also available here. And Amazon has Ticket Kindle feeds as well.

Photo: Associated Press

Obama's inaugural party fundraising passing $27 million

Gee, Barack Obama and huge gobs of money. That's something we hadn't thought about for two or three minutes.

Word just in that with still almost two weeks to go before the historic Jan. 20 inauguration, the private fundraising for the Obamas' mega-party has already passed $27 million, or better than a million bucks an hour for that day.

Nowhere near the $640 ga-million he raised for the recent campaign. But still not bad dough for an ex-community organizer in a few post-election weeks.

Individuals can chip in $50G each. And there's still time if you'd like to join the likes of George Soros, Halle Berry, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Oh, and Barbra Streisand. And some casino-running Indian tribes. Etc. Etc. And a generous donor the creator of "Star Wars" the movies George Lucas is.

Our blogging buddy Mark Silva, who's no doubt worth all that and more, has even more names and numbers over at the Swamp.

--Andrew Malcolm

No donations necessary to register here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle as well.

Photo credit: LucasFilm (on photo place cursor for caption).

Ticket Replay: Obama team probe of Obama team finds no Obama team impropriety

The last few days The Ticket has republished some items from recent months. This one originally appeared in this space on Dec. 23, 2008, when you probably weren't paying much attention to politics, which was probably the goal of releasing the study then:

The Barack Obama presidential transition office today finally released its own report on its own internal investigation of its own contacts with legally challenged Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And you'll be comforted to know the Obama folks found no impropriety whatsoever by Obama folks.

So go back to wrapping holiday presents or pretending you're working at your desk and checking out Obama's important abs. All is well with the coming World of Change. (UPDATE: How much credibility would the world give a Bush administration internal report on any Bush administration wrongdoing during the Bush administration?)

Speaking of tidy packages, the five-page report was not released in the morning as things are when public attention is desired.

It was released at 4:30 Eastern time to provide minimal exam time before the network news. But that's probably a coincidence. (A complete text of the memo is available on the jump, along with a news video; just click the "Read more" line below.)

According to the report by Greg Craig, an incoming White House attorney, Obama personnel had numerous contacts with the governor's office but no one ever suspected that Blagojevich, who's been under federal investigation for three years now, was doing anything wrong.

Craig said the feds have interviewed Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who inherited Blagojevich's 5th District House seat, and Valerie Jarrett, a newly named White House aide, as part of the governor's investigation. Emanuel did suggest some names but there was never any bargaining.

None of these Obama-Blagojevich contacts is a shock. It would be surprising if an exiting senator's office was not in touch with a nominating governor's office of the same party on his/her successor, although Obama promised immediately after Nov. 4 he would not be involved.

But given the *&#$%# excerpts read aloud two weeks ago by Chicago U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald apparently showing the governor demanding money for state business, aid and the "golden" revenue opportunity of peddling a Senate nomination, the media world was curious to know what did Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a longtime political pal of Blagojevich, say on those wiretaps.

Fitzgerald has said Obama is not involved in the investigation.

Pulling together all of the Obama contacts apparently took longer than expected because days passed. Then out of the blue Obama's team said that Fitzgerald's team had provided perfect cover by asking them to hold off a week so as not to threaten interviews in the the federal investigation of the governor. Why? Because Blagojevich still didn't know he was bugged?

On Friday, Fitzgerald's office reportedly asked Obama's team to push the report release day back to Tuesday from Monday.

At the time we suggested politicians prefer to release not positive news when people aren't paying attention, like John Edwards doing his TV affair confession on a summer Friday night when 14 people are watching the tube.

Oh, look, here we are 24 hours from Christmas Eve. Few are paying attention. The world has moved on. Looks like Mark Teixeira has been bought by the Yankees for $180 million.

Obama is in Hawaii working out in a Secret Service bubble, so he certainly won't be talking. He'll leave the political world to watch wannabe senator Caroline Kennedy pull a Sarah Palin with the media.

Emanuel, the transition team told Huffington Post today, has just a little bit ago -- in fact, we just missed him -- left for a long-planned family vacation in that place that every North Side Chicago family dreams of visiting for the year-end holidays, somewhere in Africa. We're not told the area code. Likely on a safari. With no cell coverage, of course. So he's not around to talk.

So, amazingly, there won't be any Obama person on news video to run in endless tube loops over the slow holiday. Just the five report pages, which makes for poor TV video.

There may, however, be some future amendments. The Obama team did not keep phone logs, so their contact list was developed from memory, which may or may not match the federal wiretap chronology if it's ever released.

Fitzgerald, who so helpfully asked Obama to hush up his internal report when people were most interested, is busy doing his job as the only really investigative arm perusing Illinois politics. Now that his hand was forced by the alleged impending sale of Obama's vacant Senate seat, the clock is running on an indictment of Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris.

Oh, and did we mention, four weeks from today a little before noon Eastern time, Obama becomes boss of Fitzgerald and all the other U.S. attorneys? What do you want to bet that despite the Democratic Cook County clamoring Fitzgerald stays on a while? See video below. Also the full text of the Obama team's report.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Before the stores close register here for cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item. RSS feeds are also available here. And we're on Amazon's Kindle as well, which you might have gotten for the holidays.

Photo credits: Associated Press (Blagojevich, Obama and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, top); Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press (Emanuel and Obama, bottom).

Billygate: Why Obama dumped Gov. Richardson now

New Mexico Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his name as Commerce Secretary-designate this afternoon for the new administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

With an almost audible sigh of relief barely two weeks before his inauguration Obama, in a printed statement that won't provide archival video footage, said he accepted the resignation-before-actually-taking-office "with deep regret."

And 16 days before becoming president, Obama sought to turn the PR smudge and federal probe of Richardson, his first Latino Cabinet pick, and his government into a patriotic plus: "It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet in order to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time."

It may also be a measure of the inadequacy of the new Obama administration's vetting process that it somehow missed or ignored the ongoing and widely-reported grand jury testimony over alleged incidents in 2004 in New Mexico, part of a broad federal investigation of selling state services. It would seem to be an obvious something for the experienced Richardson to include when completing the 63-page questionaire given to potential Obama appointees.

While everyone was enjoying their holidays and watching Obama's Hawaiian vacation, word continued to leak that Richardson and his gubernatorial aides are under investigation by a federal grand jury probing the possibility that they steered state bond business to a Beverly Hills firm in return for $100,000 in donations to two Richardson PACs back in 2004. (See original Ticket item from Dec. 26 below.)

(UPDATE: Press secretary-designate Robert Gibbs said tonight, "I think our vettors have done a good job.")

Unspoken by both Obama and Richardson today was the political reality that the Democrat-controlled Senate, which would have to confirm Democrat Richardson for the new Democratic president, is already in a mortifying fight with Illinois' Democrat Gov. Rod Blagojevich over a similar federal "pay-to-play" probe of his operations, including the alleged auction of his nomination to fill Obama's now-vacant U.S. Senate seat with another Democrat.

Richardson says he has ordered full state cooperation with the feds. Blagojevich has chosen to fight the federal allegations and Democratic demands that he resign or at least not nominate a Senate replacement. Last week he named former Illinois Democratic Atty. Gen. Roland Burris.

As The Ticket noted this morning, the governor created a real problem for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid by placing him in the awkward position of barring Burris, an experienced African American Democratic officeholder, from taking the seat of a less-experienced black Democrat, Obama, and becoming the only African American in the Senate.

Both Richardson and Blagojevich deny any wrongdoing. In his statement today the New Mexico governor, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination himself, and whose perfectly-timed rejection of Sen. Hillary Clinton's candidacy and endorsement of Obama boosted the Illinois senator's campaign significantly.

Richardson said the investigation would show his innocence but was likely to drag on for weeks or months, affecting the confirmation process and his ability to work in Washington. Not to mention distract the public and media from the desired message of change to believe in. The Blagojevich fight, not so easy for the new administration or Reid to end, is also likely to drag on for weeks or months.

Now, with Penny Pritzker denied and Richardson out, Obama's got to find another Commerce secretary. How about James Carville?

As Obama traveled to Washington today, a day after his family, for pre-inaugural talks about change with Democratic and Republican legislative leaders, the last thing he needs is another ongoing public display of corruption probing. As LittleGreenFootballs put it so succinctly: "Richardson throws himself under the bus."

The abrupt end of a Cabinet nominee's career is not unprecedented. As the new White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, knows well, the early days of the Bill Clinton administration in 1993 were marred with nomination missteps that had to be withdrawn after presenting a brief image of incompetence.

Also, during the shortened run-up to the first inaugural of then Gov. George W. Bush in 2001, Linda Chavez withdrew from being secretary of Labor-designate after revelations that she'd helped an illegal immigrant as her nanny and written some controversial things. That too was described publicly as "voluntary," but behind the scenes it was made clear to her what was expected to avoid further public relations trouble in the early days of an administration.

For a news video report on the Richardson resignation and to see the original Ticket item from December, click on the "Read more" line below.

-- Andrew Malcolm

You need not pay-to-play to receive cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item; just register here. RSS feeds are also available here. And Amazon has Ticket Kindle feeds as well.

Photo credit: Associated Press (Democrats Obama and Bill Richardson, top); CafePress.com (button).