In case you thought at first glance that Luvh's post was about "Taxes"

I’m sure that I speak for all northeastern liberal elite Americans when I say that every year, when I file my tax return, I think to myself “I’m a pretty savvy fellow, but I’m sure there are errors here – how can most people be expected to get this right?”

I always figured there was a logical answer to that question that I just hadn’t thought of. Well, Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle have proven that one of two things must be true: either there isn’t, or the impunity with which America’s ruling class believes it can flout the rules and suffer no consequences is truly absolute.

Geithner’s case is the more troubling one. After all, Daschle only wants to run the largest health care system in the world. Geithner wants to run the largest treasury in the world. Only one of those is actually responsible for collecting taxes.

Now look, I’m sure Theo Epstein can’t hit a curveball, and as tempting as it is to use the ability to fill out one’s tax returns as a proxy for one’s ability to oversee a fair and efficient system of taxation, that’s a specious link. But I’ve confronted this self-employment tax issue myself, and while I recall finding it both confusing and surprising, and maybe even upsetting, I am here to tell you that I would have known I had done something wrong had I not paid it. More importantly, I’m not an accountant, nor did I hire one – as both Geithner and Daschle did – to do their taxes.

More more importantly, there’s no way these guys don’t have this moment in mind when they file their tax returns, so they should have all the incentive they need to get it done right, and not to cut corners. Daschle ain’t hurting for money (though I appreciate and respect the fact that public service entails a financial sacrifice), so why imperil a future confirmation with something like this? If the incentive to figure out the right answer is there, and the wherewithal to figure out the right answer is there, but lo and behold, they end up with the wrong answer, just what on earth are we supposed to think?

I want both Geithner and Daschle in their jobs, but I refer you to Chris Hayes’ column in this week’s Nation, in which he uses this first set of Obama appointments (which should be used to turn change from a campaign slogan into a governing philosophy) to illustrate the power of the Washington political establishment – the entrenchment of the governing class.

I don’t know what to think. Of course I believe in our man just as much as always; I would have to have been tremendously naïve to let this get me down. I would have to have thought that Obama could succeed by sweeping self-interest and the self-interested right out of the beltway, rather than by deftly cultivating their support where possible and by using his tremendous popular mandate to apply pressure when necessary. But it stinks to high heaven. Pay your damn taxes.