During the first full day of President Barack Hussein Obama’s administration he announced new ethics rules, and within10 full days in office he placed at least four ‘right men for the job’, two of which evaded taxes and the other two lobbyists, with previously lobbying interest in the jobs they hold, which his own ethics rules urge steps to reduce in his administration.

These new set of ethics rules they said would usher in a “new era of openness.”  This White House likes to call it transparency, but in the short 12 full days of this administration it’s not anymore transparent than it was post inauguration.

Prior to becoming President, Obama named Timothy Geithner Treasury Secretary-designee.  But it was not revealed at the time that he failed to pay $42,000 in taxes, employed a housekeeper whose work permit expired and deducted his son’s camp fees and expenses on his income tax.  Although this was all revealed before his confirmation, because Obama said he was the ‘right man for the job’ there was no transparency.  Now Geithner didn’t admit to what the administration called ‘honest mistakes,’ which upon learning of them, he quickly addressed.  However this oversight of back taxes wasn’t corrected until after the Obama vetting process.  So much when it comes to Obama’s ‘ethics’ of tax evasion.

Now we find out this evening that former Sen. Tom Daschle, Obama’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, who is not yet confirmed, has some tax issues.  Daschle, nominated post Obama’s presidency, alerted the Senate Finance Committee, which will oversee his confirmation hearing, that he failed to pay more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest for a car and driver that was provided to him for four years by a wealthy Democratic donor and longtime friend. He filed an amended returns, concluding that he owed the taxes and paid more than $100,000 in back taxes and interest on Jan. 2.

Daschle incorrectly assumed the use of the car and driver was not subject to taxation.  But the White House says he discovered the error during preparation for his confirmation and filed amended tax returns with the proper payment and interest. Again, so much when it comes to Obama’s ‘ethics’ of tax evasion.

It is apalling when we see that Geithner a financial czar, that is going to take us out of this financial crisis and Daschle, a former lawmaker in the Senate, do not have the common sense to file proper tax returns, or at least, obtain the proper advise from tax accountants.

Now when it comes to lobbyists within 6 hours of Obama’s ethics guidelines, he names William Lynn, Deputy Secretary of Defense, a former lobbyist for Raytheon, a major supplier to the defense industry.

If this is not enough confirmed Treasury Secretary Timothy Gethner picked a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson as chief of staff, which oversees the government’s $700 billion bailout program.  Goldman Sachs received $10 billion of that money.

At this point it might be interesting to review what Obama said during his ethics guidelines.  He said he was taking steps to allow the easier release of information — well if this was the case what happened to the tax evasion disclosure of Geithner and Daschle?

“Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known,” Obama said.  I guess this rule doesn’t apply to him?

During the ethic rules announcement, aside from reducing the role of lobbyists in his administration, he said he was freezing the salaries of senior aides.  He said nothing about his salary — either requesting Congress to freeze same, or perhaps returning some to Treasury.  Days later, however, he castigated Wall Street executives for taking bonuses.

Obama promised ‘unity’ and ‘change’ when he came to Washington.  He also denounced the behavior of DC lobbyists and so addressed it in his ethics policy, but failed to live up to his own credo.  As for unity, he told the defeated GOP party arrogantly that “He won,” and that he ‘will prevail’ when it comes to his trillion dollar stimulus package, which is filled with pork, that he said he never advocated nor took a penny of when he was Senator.

Following his recent bipartisan cocktail party at the White House schmoozing to get his way, he is holding a bipartisian Super Bowl party on Sunday to get some votes for the same stimulus package in the Senate, but it appears that he is not only loosing support of the Republicans, but some of his own party.

Perhaps he should serve up some more cocktails of hypocrisy & mendacity this weekend to see if it can stick any better than it has.