Dear Mr. President

Hi,  it's Bill again.  I just wanted to get in touch and let you know that I have enjoyed watching you work over the past couple of weeks, while you start doing the hard, hard work that you have taken on to lead this nation.  I am glad to see that you haven't wasted any time in rolling back some of the madness of the Bush era.  I am glad to see you being so ambitious in creating this new stimulus package (I'm not so sure I like the package, but doing something beats the crap out of doing nothing).  In short, I am glad to see you doing so well.  I thank you for your efforts.

But....

Dude, what were you thinking with some of these cabinet appointments?  Have you decided not to vet thoroughly? or is it just that the powerful get a pass on their taxes?

I'll tell you this, Mr. President:  I make less than a hundred thousand dollars per annum, the same is true for my wife.  Both of us are federal civil servants in two different executive branch agencies.  We both hold security clearances at various levels, and I am hear to tell you that if our taxes were as jacked up as some of your appointees, you can bet that we would both be in a world of trouble regarding our jobs and ability to hold clearances.

Don't worry Mr. President, I still support you, which is the real reason for this letter:  I want to help you.  I want to tell you something that some of your advises may not have told you yet, to wit:  GET YOUR HEAD OUR OF YOUR A$$.

Yup.  That's it.

First you appoint Bill Richardson to be secretary of Commerce while he was under a major investigation.  Your people didn't know this?

Then, you appoint Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State... I still think that will bite you in the ass down the road... whatever happened to her commitment to health care?  Don't you think you should have appointed HER to Secretary for Health and Human Services?

Then you appoint this Geithner fellow to be Secretary of The Treasury.  You know, the guy who holds THE MONEY... and he has questionable tax returns, which is the nice way of saying that he didn't pay $43,000 in taxes that he owed, until he was nominated for a high position which would cause his finances to be scrutinized.

You know, $43,000 is a lot of money.  Imagine how many bullets or MRE's that could have been purchased for that kind of cash.  Hm.  Apparently Geithner has payed up, and has been sworn in already, but, still... this doesn't look good.

Next you appoint Tom Daschle to be Secretary for Health & Human Services.  OK,  I get that Tom Daschle is a well-connected Democrat, but I think that you could have done better.  I mean, lets face it, this jamoke couldn't even keep his Senate seat while he was SENATE MINORITY LEADER.  He lost his seat in a mostly Democratic state to a dope who was ousted, after one term, by a comedian.  Mr. President, you could have done better.  If nothing else, Mr. President, you should have appointed someone besides Daschle for one simple reason:  Those stupid red Sally-Jessie-Raphael glasses.  I mean, REALLY.  As it turns out, you could have made a better decision based on the $146,000 dollars in taxes that Daschle just didn't pay.

Can I just say, Mr. President, that I never complain about my taxes?  Really.  I don't.  Fortunately, because I hate owing money at tax time, I have extra money taken from my wages so that In April, we are always due a return... I don't even mind that the government gets to use my money before returning it to me.  I'm that kind of guy.  Moreover, I think that complaining about taxes while there is a war (actually two wars) on, is unpatriotic.  The simple fact is that supporting the troops means giving them what they need to fight, and those things cost money.  Tax money.

We can't trust people in high office if they are guilty of egregiously dodging one of their primary civic responsibilities.

I know that some people consider manipulating or even abusing the tax codes to be a national pastime... something to be winked or nodded at, even to be applauded, but I don't.

Please, sir, do a better job at vetting your appointees so that we have no tax cheats serving in high office. 

I'm still behind you, Mr. President, but I thought that I should just tell you this stuff, since some of the people on your staff are failing you.

Cheers,

Bill