OUCH: ‘In Retirement, He’s Starting to Look a Lot Like Michael Moore’.

ANDREW BREITBART: “Sometimes I just don’t get the Republican Party.”

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Local police want right to jam wireless signals.

MORE ON TOM DASCHLE: “Like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, he rails about corporate greed and Wall Street perks while he too is deep at the trough. If an administration is going to make a moral case against the pernicious role of D.C. lobbyists and insiders, for the moral need for taxes on the upper incomes, and for suspicion of perks and freebies—then why pick Daschle, whose free limo and tax evasion make all that look ridiculous? (But then why pick Geithner, or Richardson, or Lynn, or . . . ?)”

UPDATE: Glenn Greenwald’s not too happy about Daschle, either: Feeding at the Beltway Trough.

THE “STIMULUS:” It’s all about rewarding your friends.

THE ECONOMY IS WEAKER, but the federal work force is growing.

REPUBLICAN IS the new punk.

LIMITING FREE SPEECH in Holland.

HEH: “Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “How does one explain how California is broke, tens of billions of dollars in aggregate debt, despite having among the highest sales and income taxes in the nation?”

DAVID BOAZ: Only the little people pay taxes: “Tom Daschle has joined Timothy Geithner in the not-so-exclusive club of Obama Cabinet appointees who evaded tens of thousands of dollars in federal taxes until they were vetted for their Cabinet nominations. It’s too bad Leona Helmsley can’t be nominated as Commerce Secretary.” But Wesley Snipes is available!

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Dodd’s Sweetheart Deals Still Under Cover. “While Dodd has demanded that regulators get to the bottom of any crimes by Bernard Madoff, he has played a cat and mouse game in keeping the documents about his dealing with Countrywide Financial under wraps. What is known is that he got favored treatment from the subprime mortgage company in 2003 while at the head of the Banking Committee that regulates the industry.”

SOME GUN PEOPLE are unhappy with Michael Steele’s selection.

MICKEY KAUS: “What could Sen. Judd Gregg possibly do in a second-tier cabinet position–Commerce–to advance his conservative philosophy that would possibly make up for giving his ideological opponents a 60-seat majority in the Senate? Stop card check? Achieve a free trade agenda? … Quick, name Bush’s last Commerce secretary. . . . Gregg could go down as the biggest sucker since Arthur Goldberg, who let Lyndon Johnson con him into giving up a lifetime Supreme Court seat to become Ambassador to the U.N.”

HEY, BIG SPENDER.

MEET THE NEW BOSS, YADA YADA: Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool. “The role of the CIA’s controversial prisoner-transfer program may expand, intelligence experts say. . . . the Obama administration appears to have determined that the rendition program was one component of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism that it could not afford to discard.” And “human rights” groups are already covering for Obama, something that has not escaped notice. More on that flipflopping here, complete with before-and-after statements. (Bumped).

AT TAXPROF, A ROUNDUP OF stimulus bill tax provisions.

THOSE WHO DO NOT REMEMBER HISTORY, YADA YADA: How Government Prolonged the Depression. Just remember, the nostalgia now isn’t based on the New Deal helping the country. It’s based on the New Deal helping politicians.

D’OH! Americans save just when economy needs their money.

SPECIAL TREATMENT:

Apparently it is fine not to pay one’s taxes. That seems to be the message from the Obama administration.

First it was disclosed that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed to pay more than $34,000 in self-employment taxes. That held up his nomination for the post briefly, but did not derail it; he was confirmed by a vote of 60-34.

Now it is apparent that former Sen. Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, has been negligent as well. The former South Dakota senator recently filed amended tax returns to report $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest, the Associated Press reported. . . . This negligence should be taken seriously. But it is not expected to halt his nomination. After all, Mr. Geithner was approved.

Others have allowed a sense of entitlement to obscure conscience and judgment. Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., occupied three rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at below-market rents, failed to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income from a beach house in the Dominican Republic and has had to pay more than $10,000 owed in back taxes. Yet he still chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.

Then there is Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who received preferential rates and reduced fees in a mortgage refinance of two properties with Countrywide Financial in 2003. He has failed to make public the mortgage documents related to this deal, as the Wall Street Journal has pointed out. But that has not stopped him from pontificating against Wall Street bonuses and other perceived financial misdeeds.

President Obama could draw the line on this type of behavior by withdrawing Mr. Daschle’s name from consideration. Ordinary citizens are expected to follow the rules without VIP treatment. Why not political leaders?

Why not, indeed?