Actually, it was all my accountant’s fault. I made so much money in the last few years at speaking engagements with companies I soon hope to be regulating that he failed to note a few minor income items—but of course I take full responsibility for the error! And of course I feel just terrible about it—no, no, not just because I got caught! I’ve been a public servant all my life and would never do such a thing on purpose…

O.K. Let’s give Tom Daschle, the probable next secretary of Health and Human Services, the benefit of the doubt. He has made a lot of money since he left the Senate and his accounting errors developed out of what appears to be a genuine lack of understanding of the tax code (that he helped write): failure to realize that a free car and driver might be taxable isn’t the same as overlooking cash deposits to your checking account. Ignoring the fact that this gentleman who can’t even hire a competent accountant for his private finances will soon be responsible for managing a concern employing millions spending billions of our hard-earned tax dollars, the truth is most of us out here would probably make the same mistake if we were making more than a million a year while receiving all manner of free goods and services. Besides, he seems like such a nice man!

But how can we possibly overlook Secretary Geithner’s math errors concerning his taxes? This is the man that the president hopes will lead us out of the financial wilderness and he can’t even be trusted to balance his own checkbook? Taking him at his word that his failure to pay taxes was an “honest mistake,” we’re still left with the suspicion that we’re dealing with an incompetent. Bernie Madoff would be a better choice as Secretary of the Treasury; at least we can trust in his competency if not his morals.