And that person's name should be Howard Dean

I don't know what it is with these guys who "forget" to pay their taxes. I can only think that there's something about working too close to money that makes you either greedy or stupid.

I was never a big fan of Tom Daschle. Time after time during the Bush Administration, when he was Senate Majority Leader, he caved in to Bush Junta demands. When Barack Obama named him as his nominee to be HHS Secretary, I was less than thrilled. But this business with his taxes isn't about him being a wuss, it's about him being just as corrupt and greedy as the Republicans we're trying to replace. And the bottom line is that at least in the media, the IOKIYAR Rule is alive and well. But even without the media, aren't we supposed to be better than that? Especially when there is a perfectly fine candidate out there for the job who has probably paid his taxes every year?

So I'm with the Gray Lady on this one:

Mr. Daschle’s tax shortfall is particularly troubling because it comes on the heels of another nominee’s failure to pay taxes due. We were not pleased when the president’s Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, admitted that he had failed to pay tens of thousands of dollars in federal self-employment taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund despite having signed paperwork acknowledging the obligation.

Now we are confronted with an even larger lapse by Mr. Daschle, who failed to pay $128,000 in taxes, primarily for personal use of a car and driver provided to him by a private equity firm for which he consulted. Although the firm — headed by a major Democratic donor — had not issued a form 1099 for the value of the car service, Mr. Daschle said he became concerned last June that he might owe taxes on it and instructed his accountant to investigate. Neither was concerned enough to actually pay the taxes.

Only after the Obama transition team flagged unrelated tax issues that would require filing amended returns did Mr. Daschle and his accountant address the need to report the personal use value of the car service — more than $255,000 over three years — as income. Only after he had been chosen to be the health secretary did Mr. Daschle tell the transition team about the unpaid taxes. He paid some $140,000 in back taxes and interest on Jan. 2 to settle several tax problems — and he acknowledges owing more.

In both the Geithner and Daschle cases, the failure to pay taxes is attributed to unintentional oversights. But Mr. Daschle is one oversight case too many. The American tax system depends heavily on voluntary compliance. It would send a terrible message to the public if we ignore the failure of yet another high-level nominee to comply with the tax laws.