Barack Obama's nominee to be chief performance officer owed less than $1000 on a DC tax lien, which she paid. Even though Tom Daschle's tax problems are much more elephantine, the political universe can only contain so much pressure, apparently, before it bursts. So, say goodbye to Nancy Killefer's service to the country. In a letter to President Obama, she stepped away from the job as national chief performance officer because "in the current environment," her "personal tax issue...could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid." Really? In fact, doesn't her withdrawal blur the line between doozies-of-a-mistake like Daschle, and dribbles, like Killefer's $936 tax lien? Doesn't her withdrawal detract attention from the real ethical principle being debated?
In the new Change era, we're supposed to be able to forgive small mistakes - Obama's cabinet nominees weren't flawless -- but now, the person who made the smallest mistake we're aware of has now succombed to pressure that was not meant to extend to her. To put it another way, what makes Daschle's mistake troublesome is its magnitude and how it was handled, not the fact of it in the first place.
Here's the public info about the lien:
Debtor Information Name: KILLEFER,
Creditor Information Name:
Original Filing Date: 3/7/2005 Case Number: SL-00031426-2005-UE
Amount: $946.69 Status: OPEN
Filing 1 Filing Number: 2005031426
Filing Type:
RECORDER OF DEEDS Filing County: WASHINGTON D.C Filing Office: DC
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/02/tax-dominos-begin-to-topple/294/
