† Is Geithner’s Nomination DOA?: In addition to the not-so-honest-sounding tax mistakes made by Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner  that were spotlighted by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson points out:

Leaving aside that Geithner of all people should know better, it’s hard to underpay your taxes when using a computerized filing program as he says he did.

Turbo Tax asks a question. You answer. To underpay, you have to override the system.

The New York Times detects a credibility gap:

As much as Mr. Obama and his team may wish it, however, the disclosures cannot be dismissed so easily, or papered over. The just-the-facts report of Mr. Geithner’s tax transgressions, compiled and released by the Senate Finance Committee, paints a picture of noncompliance that is considerably more disturbing than his supporters are acknowledging.

Mr. Geithner must be questioned forcefully about these matters at the hearing next week, and his explanations must be credible. Even in the best of economic times, it would be hard to accept a Treasury secretary - who, after all, is in charge of the Internal Revenue Service - with a cavalier attitude toward paying his taxes. Today, in a time of economic peril, the nation cannot afford a Treasury secretary with a tainted ability to command respect and instill confidence. …

Many people find taxes baffling, but before his job at the I.M.F, Mr. Geithner was a senior official in the Treasury Department under President Clinton, and for the past five years he has been the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. With that professional profile, tax transgressions are tough to excuse.

The Wall Street Journal, which has been pursuing this story aggressively, explains why Geithner’s “honest” mistakes matter:

Some of our readers may recall something called "the tax gap," which is the estimated difference between taxes due … taxes that the Internal Revenue Service actually collects. In 2007, the IRS estimated that the gap stood at $290 billion a year. And since Democrats took control of Congress, Senators like Max Baucus and Kent Conrad have made a fetish out of closing the gap. …

But now Mr. Geithner has come along seeking the job of overseeing the IRS, among other duties. And lo, Mr. Geithner is a living embodiment of The Gap. …

Even after the IRS audited him in 2006, Mr. Geithner paid back taxes only for the two years - 2003 and 2004 - for which he had been audited. He did not bother to amend his 2001 and 2002 returns until late last year, when the tax issue came up during the Obama vetting process.

But Mr. Baucus, who once called the tax gap "an affront to all the rest of us who pay our taxes," is not affronted. "This is an honest mistake and it's clear there was no intention not to pay," said the Finance Committee Chairman. ...
 

If forgiveness is to be the order of the day for the man who may soon be responsible for the IRS, American taxpayers deserve a similar reprieve.

But is Geithner, as The Washington Post’s often droll but not always original (last item) Dana Milbank put it, “too big to fail?” Here’s what Fortune’s Nina Easton thinks:

With financial markets still fragile, lawmakers want incoming President Obama to have his Treasury secretary in place as soon as possible - with a ready store of cash on hand to control any frightening surprises that comes his way.

As a Geithner ally and Washington veteran said of the nominee's confirmation woes: "If we weren't in this period, he'd be dead." …

Senators like the familiar, and Geithner is a known quantity in Washington: as a Clinton Treasury official; on Wall Street, as New York's Federal Reserve chief and co-architect of the 2008 financial market interventions; and now in the Senate, where he has spent most of the past month meeting with senators and crafting changes to the TARP financial-rescue package to ease growing unrest over how the Treasury Department is spending hundreds of billions in taxpayer money. …

Already, the outrage over how Treasury spent the first $350 billion in TARP money is palpable. …

While senators have kept their comments measured and mostly supportive of the nominee, commentators and bloggers are stirring indignant waters. …

[W]ith his confirmation hearing now postponed, there is a full week for the political megaphone to issue a louder message. …

[T]he emotions of Capitol Hill can be unpredictable - just like Geithner's fate.

† Is The Iraqi Criminal Justice System More Efficient Than Ours?: The Washington Post considers the case of, Michael Brillon, who ran through six publicly funded attorneys from 2001 through 2004:

He fired two, claiming they did little-to-no work on his case; he threatened the life of a third - forcing his withdrawal - and had two others leave. As a result, Mr. Brillon, who had three prior felony convictions … was convicted by a jury of second-degree aggravated domestic assault and sentenced to 12 to 20 years in prison. …

The Vermont Supreme Court threw out Mr. Brillon's conviction and barred prosecutors from retrying him after concluding that Mr. Brillon's right to a speedy trial had been violated - even though the delays were the fault of Mr. Brillon or his lawyers. The court concluded, in part, that because the public defenders were paid with state money, the state must be held responsible. The Supreme Court, which heard arguments in the case yesterday, should overrule the decision.

[L]etting defendants and their lawyers benefit from delays of their own making would create a perverse incentive for them to drag their feet.

Editorial Note: Here is the exchange between Justice Samuel Alito and defense attorney William Nelson on this very point, courtesy of Bennington Banner:

Alito:When you have a defendant who starts out by firing his lawyer, and engineers the withdrawal of another through threat, we don't know how quickly this could have gone to trial had the first lawyer not been fired.

Nelson:When a defendant requests a speedy trial, the court has some responsibility to ensure that the case is moving forward. As time goes by, I think the court's acceptance of continuances has to be more grudging.

Alito: This may create a perverse incentive. The delay may help the case and, in the worst case for the defense, it could result in a speedy trial violation.

Nelson: The court's main pretrial business is to set deadlines. Your hypothetical is not this case.

† R-E-S-P-E-C-T: You Get As You Give: Susan Estrich writes, “I don't hate George Bush. I never have.” She continues:

I voted against him twice. I disagree with him, sometimes passionately. I think the country is in worse shape now than it was eight years ago, and that history will not be kind to him. … I am glad he is leaving office next week. I won't miss him. But I don't hate him.

I hate Hamas and its leaders, who would rather see their children die than let Israeli children live in peace. I hate al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden for what they did on 9/11. I hate serial murderers and pedophiles and people who abuse their children. ...

President Bush's last days in office have produced too much invective for my taste. Yes, I am happy his term is over. No, I don't agree with his assessment of his legacy. But if we can't show some civility toward him, if we don't respect the presidency, what will we say next week, when the loudmouths on the other side start their chant? …

If we aren't willing to show it for President Bush as he leaves office, what basis will we have to demand it for President

Good question. The Stiletto will take her cues from what happens in the next few weeks.

Editorial Note: The Washington Post reports that Code Pink, Arrest Bush, the Coalition for Peace and other mootbats are on the horns of a dilemma:

Their guy might have won, but after almost a decade of being on the opposite side of presidential decisions on the Iraq war, Supreme Court appointments and a host of other issues, progressive activists have a new problem: how to make demands without appearing adversarial.

"We don't want to be seen as protesting against [Obama] so much as pushing him to fulfill his promises," said Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink. "It's totally, totally different."

"In years past, we organized and organized and didn't see any direct result because we were up against an administration that wasn't listening," Rodriguez said. …

Even those who disagree with the president-elect's stands on such issues as abortion say they are planning "educational gatherings," not disruptive demonstrations. … Obama isn't the only one who wants to set a new tone in Washington.

Perhaps if these groups had taken this respectful tack from the beginning, they would have found a more respectful reception over the last eight years.

† Pundits To The Left! Pundits To The Right!: "The Daily Show" goes to "Pundit School" (Hat Tip: TVNewser):