Politicians hold themselves to a different set of rules. It's common knowledge. For example, if you're in an accident where alcohol might be involved, do you get to wait until the next day to speak to the sheriff, as former Vice President Cheney (R) did? In all fairness, Cheney was just following Ted Kennedy's example in 1969, when Mary Jo Kopechne was killed at Chappaquiddick; Kennedy (D) waited until the next day to report the accident.
How many of the politicians in this YouTube video, who admitted to using illegal drugs, have pursued legislation to legalize the same drugs they've used? Will President Obama ("Yes we cannabis"), who smoked and inhaled, and snorted, stop federal prosecution of drug users? Will he stop federal prosecution of medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal? Will he push for decriminalization legislation?
Do you believe he'll be a change from former Presidents Clinton (D) and G.W. Bush (R), who both smoked or snorted illegal drugs? Obama's predecessors both thought they deserved treatment different than the average citizen, since neither pushed for any decriminalization of the same drugs they admitted to sampling.
Presidents promise their administrations will be ethical with laughable results. When they run for office, politicians try to convince you that they're no different than you, the average citizen. On the campaign trail, they promise they won't tolerate a double standard for those in power:
- Not long after Richard Nixon (R) was impeached and resigned, Jimmy Carter (D) restated, as he signed into law the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, that he had "promised the American people that I would do everything in my power to guarantee integrity in the executive branch of government." (pdf) Where was Carter's integrity when he didn't hold Bert Lance, his banker friend, to the same standard when there was a conflict of interest between Lance's financial holdings and his new job as director of the Office of Management and Budget?
- To contrast his future administration with the Reagan (R) administration in which "138 Reagan administration officials had been convicted, had been indicted, or had been the subject of official investigations for official misconduct and/or criminal violations," Bill Clinton (D) promised that his would be "the most ethical administration in the history of the country." The man who smoked but didn't inhale, was later impeached, but not convicted.
- George W. Bush (R) promised "to restore honor and integrity" to the White House. Conflicts of interest with cabinet members emerged as soon as he took office. In 2005, he had to order his aides to attend ethics training after the Valerie Plame leaks. And just where are those WMD?
Just like his predecessors, Barack Obama (D) has promised a "new era of responsibility." Responsibility? Or irresponsibility? According to a February 2, 2009 NY Times article:
"Every four or eight years a new president arrives in town, declares his determination to cleanse a dirty process and invariably winds up trying to reconcile the clear ideals of electioneering with the muddy business of governing. Mr. Obama on his first day in office imposed perhaps the toughest ethics rules of any president in modern times, and since then he and his advisers have been trying to explain why they do not cover this case or that case."
In the same article, Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is quoted:
“This is a big problem for Obama, especially because it was such a major, major promise. He harped on it, time after time, and he created a sense of expectation around the country. This is exactly why people are skeptical of politicians, because change we can believe in is not the same thing as business as usual.”
Here are examples of the "high standards" of Obama's "new era" cabinet position selections:
- December 2008: As part of an agreement with President-elect Obama (D) to support the nomination of senator Hillary Clinton (D) for secretary of state, former President Bill Clinton’s foundation revealed the identity of its donors. Upstate New York developer, Robert J. Congel, donated $100,000 to Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, at about the same time that senator Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for Congel's mall project. (Bill Clinton and secretary of state-to-be Hilary Clinton denied any connection between the two events.)
- January 3, 2009: Obama's secretary of commerce nominee, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (D), announced he withdrew from his nomination for secretary because of an FBI investigation into his connection to a California company that won municipal bond business in New Mexico after contributing money to various Richardson causes. (The governor said he was innocent of any wrong-doing.)
- January 23, 2009: The Senate delayed the confirmation vote for William J. Lynn III, an ex-Raytheon lobbyist, and former Pentagon official during the Clinton administration. (Lynn will have difficulty meeting paragraph 3 of President Obama's executive order on ethics which prohibits registered lobbyists from taking a government job within two years of working as a lobbyist.)
- January 26, 2009: Timothy Geithner (D), who failed to pay $40,000 in income taxes, was approved by the Senate as secretary of the Treasury and immediately began overseeing the giveaway of taxpayer money.
According to Chris Dodd (D), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, the double standard is in force, some "pigs" are more equal than others:
"To suggest that Tim Geithner is unqualified because of this tax issue is to fail to understand his contribution to this country."
- January 27, 2009: Mark Patterson, who represented Goldman Sachs as a lobbyist, is appointed chief of staff to Treasury secretary Timothy F. Geithner. According to a USA Today article, Geithner announced Patterson's appointment on "the same day he announced rules aimed at reducing the role of lobbyists in agency decisions." (No, George Orwell, I'm not making this up.)
- February 3, 2009: Nancy Killefer pulled her name from the running as Chief Performance Officer of the Obama administration because of failure to pay under $1000 in unemployment taxes for household help at her D.C. home.
- February 3, 2009: HHS nominee Tom Daschle (D), a strong supporter of the Obama campaign, withdrew his nomination. Senate hearings revealed that Daschle had made $5 million and lived lavishly because of his connections in Washington, D.C. in the four years after he was a senator. Two days earlier, after Senate hearings had also revealed Daschle's failure to pay $128,000 in federal taxes, President Obama said that he was “absolutely” standing behind the former senator.
Robert Gibbs, Obama's White House press secretary said,
“The President believes that senator Daschle is the right person for the very important job of ensuring that we cut costs, reform our health care system, and finally give the American people in health care the outcomes that they deserve.”
Was the President sending a message that different rules applied to Tom Daschle and his other appointees?
Yes. In a February 4, 2009 NY Times article quoting an interview with NBC News, the President said:
“I’ve got to own up to my mistake, which is that ultimately it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules. You know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”
Daschle said he had “no excuse” and wanted to “deeply apologize” for his failure to pay $128,000 in federal taxes, and has paid the back taxes.
(While admitting his mistake, President Obama didn't say whether he'd ask Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner, who had owed $40,000 in taxes, to also step down.)
- February 4, 2009: The Senate delayed approving California congresswoman Solis as President Obama's Labor secretary. Solis co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act, also co-sponsored by then-senator Obama. The bill eliminates secret ballots for unionizing at a business, allowing unions to strong arm employees into supporting unionization at a non-union business. During her confirmation hearings, Solis didn't reveal her role as treasurer of a lobbying group for labor unions in support of the EFCA.
- February 4, 2009: Details were released that Leon Panetta, President Obama's nominee for CIA director, received $700,000 in speaking fees last year. Merrill Lynch & Co. paid Panetta $56,000 for two speeches and Wachovia paid him $28,000 for one. Both are failed banks involved in the TARP program to redistribute taxpayer money to failed bankers. Panetta also received a $28,000 "honorarium" from the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm that owns companies doing business with national-security agencies of the U.S. government and specializes in cronyism for former politicians. (A Carlyle spokesman said Panetta was paid to speak at an investor conference and that the matter was unrelated to Carlyle Group subsidiary Booz Allen. Of course not.)
Does anyone still believe there isn't a double standard for politicians? Here are nine examples of Obama's kind of change within less than one month of taking the oath of office. Obama is clearly showing that he is not different. There is no change.
Obama continues the double standard established in 1787. He advocates government spending, but his elite supporters aren't keen on contributing their own money to the tax coffers; his policies are ok with them as long as he's spending other people's money. Listen to this link of Tom Daschle speaking in 1998 about tax cheats. He made the statements when he was in government voting to spend other people's money.
If you're connected to the right politician and don't pay your taxes, you might get a cabinet-level position in the Obama administration. If you're connected to the wrong mob and don't pay your taxes, you'll get seven years prison time as Al Capone did.
Business as usual.
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