Duplicity

I hope everyone had a chance to see Charlie Rangel express his outrage over the A.I.G. bonuses last week. What a performance by Cadillac Charlie. If you didn’t know better you’d never know that he solicited millions from the insurance giant and its former CEO, all the while inserting provisions in bills that saved the corporation many times that amount. If it seems I’m picking on him, believe me I realize that’s what Congressmen who gain the sort of power he has do, but he’s close to home and the Times does a good job of outing him – not that anyone seems to care. Read the latest here.

Another act of Congressional duplicity that ranks at the top of the list of double dealing the public was the provision inserted in the bill that created prescription drug benefits for older Americans which prohibited Medicare from using the buying power of the 40 million Americans who use Medicare to get competitive pricing. It’s been three years and now we know the cost of that provision, drafted by drug lobbyists and passed by our Congress: $30 billion over 10 years. There’s a good update in a column about it here.

I know many of you don’t want President Obama to take on Congress, but how else do we stop grand larceny on this scale?

A third, less damaging form of duplicity, is the new movie of the same name. It’s a fast paced, stylish, old-fashion caper movie with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, and they are both great. Owen may be the coolest guy (other than Clint) in the movies today. One warning however: if you are easily confused by complicated plot twists, this may not be the movie for you. This one has more switchbacks than an Afghan mountain road.

Tom Daschle, public servant

Tom’s “public” was Leo Hindery, the New York media rich guy who paid him a million a year, plus providing the now famous car and driver, in exchange for what appear to be some very ill-defined duties.

Of course he wasn’t lobbying, which would have required him to register as such, which would have brought certain vocational restrictions, included barring him from the Obama cabinet per BHO’s self-imposed ban on that particular strain of doxy.

Ah, but a lobbyist by any other name is not a lobbyist in the parlance of our government. It turns out that anyone can “engage in lobbying activities on behalf of a client” so long as said activities do not constitute more than 20% of one’s activities on behalf of that client. TD was the only one tracking his hours, so I guess it worked out OK for him.

I make a tab less than TD, but my employer supplies me with a few perks that sweeten the job a little. Despite never having served as the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I am, however, fully aware that these perks trigger tax obligations. And my professional tax advisor reminds me just in case it slips my mind. But if it could happen to Charlie Rangel and Tim Geithner, I guess it could happen to Tommy D., too. He would have been a little more believable if he’d paid up in June when the “error” was discovered rather than waiting until he’d been nominated for the H&HS gig.

Ever since the news of his tax problems broke we’ve been hearing about what a popular guy he is on the Hill. I’m just wondering how much of his popularity stems from the $66,000+ he and his wife gave to various Senate, House and Presidential candidates last year. (Including, ironically, Charlie Rangel.) Full rundown here. Well, I’m sure those contributions will play no role in the confirmation vote.

Finally, don’t you love how Tommy quickly labeled his failure to pay his income taxes a “stupid mistake”? This is has become the de rigor response for all manner of political chicanery. I call it the Harrison Ford response, for the advice he gave the President (Donald Moffat) while playing Jack Ryan in Clear and Present Danger. The basic idea is you self-label yourself something terrible, but survivable (stupid), before your critics or the press can label you something worse and less survivable (e.g., thief, tax-cheat, influence peddler).

So somebody please tell me, why is it so important that Tom Daschle be the Secretary of H&HS that we are expected to overlook this pretty thievery which saps the morale of the country and dishonors genuine public service?

Can someone explain this?

Here were the headlines on http://www.cnnmoney.com/ at the end of the day on Friday:

* Most jobs lost in 34 years. 11 month decline of 1.9 million

* Unemployment rate soars to 6.7%

* Foreclosures soar 76% to record 1.35 million

* Dow rises 269.13

If this were an SAT test I think I could nail the line that doesn’t belong here. I will never understand the financial markets; but then again, the professionals don’t seem to either.

Charlie Rangel is back in the news. Seems he applied for and received a “homestead” tax rebate from NY state for a house he owns, but to legally qualify the house must be one’s principal residence. But Charlie lives in three rent controlled apartments in Harlem, also in conflict with the law. Then there is he failure to pay taxes on his condo in the Dominican. It’s good to be the king. It’s been a tough year for NY Dems. In addition to Charlie’s and Governor Spitzer’s little problems, new Governor Patterson had to fire his number one aide who had failed to pay US income taxes for several years. His lawyer claimed a form of mental illness that prevents a person from paying taxes. I wish it was contagious.

Two more reasons I love magazines: Read Esquire’s article in the December issue on Dean Kamen. Inventing the Segway may be among the least impressive (and least strange) of his many accomplishments. Turning sewage into drinking water? A perpetual motion machine? No problem for Dean. No blog is ever going to provide the world with this kind of journalism.

Is there any doubt that Clint Eastwood is the coolest guy on earth? Read this mini review in Time of his acting and directing career combined with more info on the upcoming Gran Torino, which he says will be his last acting job. His timing is also impeccable as it turns out he plays a recently retired Ford assembly line worker. Pretty topical.

A brief digression for “Liar of the Week”

From today’s New York Times front page:

"Representative Charles B. Rangel said on Wednesday that “cultural and language barriers” had hindered him from understanding the finances of his Dominican Republic beach house, and vowed to repay several thousand dollars in federal taxes he owes after failing to report $75,000 in rental income from the villa.

At a Capitol Hill news conference, during which he was by turns remorseful and combative, the congressman said that he had not been aware of the income and unpaid taxes in part because he had trouble getting detailed financial statements from the resort’s managers in the Dominican Republic.

“Every time I thought I was getting somewhere, they’d start speaking Spanish,” Mr. Rangel said.

The explanation was greeted with skepticism and surprise by some people in his district, where Spanish is the primary language in nearly half the households and even Mr. Rangel’s own Congressional Web site can be instantly translated to Spanish with just two clicks of a computer mouse."

Congressman Rangel is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means committee and a lawyer. Earlier this year it was discovered that he held leases on three rent controlled apartments in his New York City residence in violation of New York law. You can read the whole story here.