Geithner serial-lies to Senate – MSLBs ignore it; will Obama?

What else are you going to say about Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner’s laughable claim that TurboTax software errors caused him to miss paying more than $30,000 in FICA taxes he should have?

First, TurboTax is a simple program, and very much GIGO driven. If Geithner input garbage, whose fault is that?

And, the lie is so transparent, to boot. For ’winger blogs, this baby was far easier to check than claims that Bush National Guard documents aired by Dan Rather were possibly typed on a computer rather than a typewriter or early word processor. And, they’ve blown it out of the water.

That ignores the two years Geithner had a preparer due his taxes. The only way Geithner got those years wrong was if he lied to the preparer, despite the IMF telling him he was considered self-employed for tax purposes.

Beyond that level of bald-faced transparency in a lie, to me, there’s often a grain or two of arrogance. It’s as if Geithner is nonverbally telling Congress, “Yeah, I lied. But, I’m the indispensable man, so, what are you going to do about it?”

Part two of the problem is the mainstream liberal blogs, the TPMs, WMs, Koses, etc. of the MSLB firmament, after eight years of bitching about mainstream media’s failure to do its job with oversight of Bush, are so far ignoring this issue.

The country’s top financial man, including being the ultimate boss of the IRS, skipped paying part of his taxes for years. That’s bad enough. Now, he’s lying about why he did it.

Let’s let San Francisco Chronicle columnist Kathleen Pender have a few words on the importance of this all:

I believe that hiring a man who failed to do his taxes right will set a terrible example. Our tax system is built on the premise of pay when due, not pay when caught.

As for people who say we can’t afford to do without a Treasury Secretary right now, I counter:
1. Obama knew all this a month ago or more; he could have nominated somebody else;
2. If you accept that argument, you’re accepting Geithner’s “indispensible man” arrogance;
3. We can’t afford to do WITH Tim Geithner running the Treasury;
4. Obama’s “common man” popularity runs SERIOUS risk of early trouble, re the stimulus plan, more TARP bailout, etc., if a “one set of laws for me, another for you” guy is running the show.
5. Obama’s appearance of fallibility grows the longer he stays with Geithner.
That said, as I noted, nobody forced Obama to stay with Geithner after Obama’s vetting team first became aware of the problem.

Instead, unless he changes his mind, President Obama is determined to inflict a serial liar upon the United States as chief point man for as much as $1 trillion of economic stimulus work.

Do you trust Tim Geithner? (Unfortunately, the Washington Post, going by the headline of its Web story at the first link, apparently still does.)