Kirk Should Withdraw His Nomination

This is getting old, and frankly, I'm getting sick of it! The Obama camp ran a virtually flawless campaign, but since winning the presidency, they seem totally incapable of vetting a candidate for posts in the administration. I could understand a mistake or two if it involved something in a candidates personal life that he had kept secret for many years. But that is not what's happening.

The president's candidate vetters keep allowing him to nominate candidates who cannot seem to pay their income taxes. First it was Timothy Geithner, who was finally approved as Treasury Secretary even though he owed thousands in back taxes. Then it was Tom Daschle (HHS Secretary nominee) and Nancy Killefer (Chief Performance Officer nominee) who were found to have tax problems. Both withdrew their nominations.

Now it's happened again. Dallasite Ron Kirk is Obama's nominee to become his Trade Representative, but once again the problem of back taxes being owed has popped up. It turns out that Kirk owes about $10,000 in back taxes.

One of the problems was a mishandling of speaker fees he had earned. Kirk had donated the fees to a scholarship fund at Austin College, and did not declare them as income on his tax form. But the tax law says the fees were income, and therefore should have been listed as such on his tax form. He should then have listed the fee gifts to Austin College as charitable donations.

He also made some other deductions that were not deemed proper. He claimed $3000 for the donation of a TV, which should have been only $1500. He also claimed the full value of Maverick season tickets as a business deduction, but could only verify part of that amount.

Ron Kirk is not a poor man who needed to squeeze a few more dollars out of his tax return to survive. He made $556,740 from his law firm last year, and another $460,265 from serving on the boards of several companies -- that's over a million dollars. There's no reason for his tax return to violate the law, since he could afford competent accounting help.

Millions of Americans who can't afford accounting help are expected to obey the law and pay the tax appropriate for their income. I expect millionaires to do the same. I don't care if a man is an African-American Democrat or a White Republican, he should pay his taxes and not look for shortcuts around it.

Personally, I think Ron Kirk has turned out to be a disappointment. He should withdraw his name from nomination as U.S. Trade Representative. We were told to expect a higher standard of ethics from the Obama administration, but that's hard to believe when they are nominating millionaires who try to get around paying their fair share of taxes.

And whoever is vetting these candidates should resign. How hard is it to check their tax records. Shouldn't that be the first thing done?