Within hours of  President Obama’s administration, the ‘transparency’  he promised, all of a sudden was not so transparent and a flub of oath came close to a media cover up.

And so, with the advise of White House Counsel, Obama took the oath again.  Not because it was required by the Constitution, because the Constution says the newly elected President becomes president at 12 noon on January 20th, oath of office or no oath of office.  That is the transition that is established by the Constitution.

Nevertheless, White House Counsel, trying to prevent some far-out legal suit claiming the President didn’t use the right words to affirm his conviction to the Constitution, suggested that it should be redone.

It was redone in the oval office the next day with Justice Roberts, trying to get it right the second time, but without a bible and with an admonishment by Obama to do it slowly.

However, obviously because it was an embarrassment, media coverage was limited to a pool of three representatives of the print media and no fourth estate photographers or broadcast media.  One member of the print media had a recorder, so there was an audio recording of the event.  But hardly a full transparency of media disclosure over a flub of oath. There was no independent photographer, the photo of record was taken by a White House photographer.

So much for promises of transparency.

Now when it comes to appointments, let’s take one appalling example of a lack of transparency and honesty by Obama.  The appointment of  Treasury Secretary-designee Timothy Geithner who failed to pay $42,000 in taxes, had employed a housekeeper whose work permit had expired and deducted his son’s camp fees and expenses on his income tax.

And he didn’t fess up to what the administration called ‘honest mistakes, which upon learning of them, he quickly addressed.’  However, Geithner’s oversight of back taxes wasn’t corrected until after the Obama vetting process, when he paid $26,000 of the back taxes just before his nomination went to the Senate Finance Committee for official review.

When asked who prepared his tax filings he hesitated — but then revealed it was he through online Turbo Tax.  It drew laughter, and rightly so, for Geithner, according to Obama,  is going to bring us out of this financial crisis “because he’s the right person to help lead our economic recover during these challenging times.”

I for one question this judgment.  Nevertheless, he is on the way to become Treasury Secretary.  It seems to me he is more qualified to be ‘Dog Catcher’ than Treasury Secretary, overseeing the IRS who is responsible to overseeing whether Geithner is paying his taxes.

So much for transparency in this administration of two days.  More to come.