04 February 2009
Whither Integrity?
Whatever happened to personal responsibility? During Viet Nam, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara wanted kill-counts and other numbers to convince America that we were winning that war. He repents of this 30 years after the fact in a book he authored. McNamara was given his numbers by others, individuals complicit in the cooking of the statistical books. News reporters and draftee veterans finally achieved enough countra data that the American people no longer supported the generals and cabinet secretaries feeding the public pablum. Watergate cinched it for the Nixon Administration. Arrogance and the Domino Theory.
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There were more indictments and convictions of Administration staff during the Reagan presidency than ever before. Why, to acquire wealth and power through the status of the federal offices. Greed.
When Desert Storm put thousands of US military personnel into Kuwait, the President ensured that media information would be controlled by the military so that the war would not be in everyone's living rooms every day. Did we, America, achieve its strategic objectives in that war? What was so important to the US that required us to intervene militarily into a regional war involving Iraq taking over Kuwait? Oil.
The entire period of George Bush's presidency, that ended less than 3 weeks ago, was a willful disregard of our laws, lying before the United Nations Security Council, forbidding photos of the caskets of US military personnel as they arrived, flag draped, in the US. Who ran the war against Iraq and remain committed to its fraudulent premise? The revolving door within the Central Command's commanding generals and admirals withheld the truths on the ground by limiting their briefings to the Congress and to the news media. When Abu Ghraive Prison was unveiled as mismanaged, out-of-control and horrible treatment of the prisoners there, the first blame fell on the squad seen in the videos as "a few bad apples." Then, the brigadier general, called to active duty from the Reserves, became the sacraficial lamb. She had no political allies in Washington powerful enough to question the actual and implied errors of judgment she may have made. In any event, she was sent back home and retired. To remedy the international criticisms of the US's treatment of prisoners, the different terms used to describe detainees as anything but prisoners of war, the prisoners were demonized and dehumanized by the Administration and a compliant mainstream media simply reported what the Administration told them was true. To top it off, the replacement general for all foreign detainment centers in Iraq was General Sanchez, former commandant of Guantanamo. Members of the Club.
I believe that Barack Obama is now President because of the degree of irresponsibility and illegal behavior of George Bush and his Administration. The political composition of Congress changed for the same reason. The inept, confused George Bush established the ethics of laissez-faire from Day One of his administration. Not only did his executive departments follow his lead and out-sourced what could not be shut down through attrition, but Bush's Core: Wall Street got the message as well. And here America is with two wars in the Middle East, with the poorest public health system among the top 50 industrial nations and with a collapse of our credit based economy built on smooth and mirrors. Greed.
The suddenly obstinate, tight-fisted underwriters, who had profited and promoted the laissez-faire business and consumer credit markets, who discovered that their brother bankers were as insolvent as they were, stopped lending money and initiated thousands of foreclosures on the very loans they had approved only a couple of months prior. Now the global economy is shutting down for lack of operating cash formerly available from loans and purchases by consumers using personal credit. Professional Arrogance.
Is there a pattern here? You bet. The voters saw it all and voted for a change in the way government operates and the economy runs. Now, living in the same house as Honest Abe, President Obama seems to be the only one who is taking personal responsibility for an inadequate vetting group and, just as importantly, for his nominees who were not forthcoming with their tax and legal problems to the vetting group.
When I worked at North American Aviation [viz. Rockwell International] in 1966, there was a huge sign posted on the wall of the main work building: PRIDE Personal Respnsibility In Daily Effort. I don't know how long that sign had been there, because many of the workers had been there since World War II. That sign if updated today could add: Yes We Can!
The President and Vice President should not be held accountable for the omissions of facts each nomicee knows, even if others do not (at the time.) Governor Richardson excused himself from being nominated because he could not foresee how the legale process might compromise his ability to serve in the Cabinet. He was not admitting to any hidden malfeasance--the court case has been well known. To me, Governor Richardson took responsibility for the unknown but possible problems that his nomination would cause President-Elect Obama. Integrity.
Others may have withdrawn their names from consideration, too. Yet, the new Treasury Secretary's unreported tax liabilities did not prevent him from Senate acceptance. One has to wonder why a person in the highest tier of our financial movers and shakers prepared his own tax returns using TurboTax. The complexity of his tax reporting should have led him to an independent CPA to prepare his returns. Perspective.
One also has to wonder about the former Democratic leader of the Senate, a man acclaimed for his political savvy, would withhold his failure to pay over $120,000 in taxes. Tom Daschle is reported to have known about this last June, yet he did nothing about it until his nomination for HHS Secretary was official. Is it the arrogance of accreted reknown and expertise that allowed him to minimize his tax problem as such a small thing compared to his record in the Senate and his connections within the health care industry? I do not know his intensions, but I cannot accept his characterizing his actions as an oversight or a mistake. If he had any ambition for a Cabinet appointment when he joined the Obama team last year, he should have called in a reputable CPA firm to review his taxes and resolve those problems a year ago, not ten days after President Obama's inauguration. Arrogance or Stupidity.
He should have disclosed this to the vetting group and withdrawn. Further, he knew he was part of the revolving door between industry lobbyists and the federal department whose direction he had tried to influence. President Obama had pledged to not allow this lobbyist-federal department relationship to continue. He issued an Executive Order within two days of his Presidency spelling out rules that would have precluded Tom Daschle from being considered qualified for nomination. Even then, Daschle did not withdraw from consideration. Perhaps Governor Dean can be qualified for nomination. There's always Mitt Romney, too.
For the first head of a newly created federal Department, the nominee should have told the vetting group about her tax reporting issues. As soon as her discrepancy was public, she withdrew--but not before. False image.
Media commentators seem to excuse the vetting group because it is comprised of bright lawyers. That group needs senior tax accountants, too. In tax court, a clever tax accountant can defeat a prosecutor because just knowing the verbiage of the law is insufficient to having used the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to the benefit of their clients. With almost 20 years of auditing experience, I know that I have to orient the lawyer to the accounting basics that will reveal the substance of the investigation. I am sure that President Obama can call upon the IRS to assist his vetting group.
So, whither integrity? Today requires a combination of PRIDE and Yes We Can. Perhaps more of the people involved should adopt a new mantra: YES WE WILL!
Labels: Daschle, integrity, nominations, President Obama, taxes
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