Free Republic

My sources tell me President Obama had a heads-up on Tom Daschle's tax problems nine days before they came out in the press. I'm also told that Daschle offered to step aside as Obama's health and human services secretary nominee before the story got out, but that Obama, who thinks of Daschle as some kind of father figure, said "no." If that's how it happened, then the new president wins the Rookie of the Week award, hands down. He should have accepted Daschle's offer then and there. Obama was being loyal. But in this business, sooner or later you learn...

Well now, that certainly didn't take all that long, did it? Nearing the end of yesterdays program we got word that Nancy Killefer was out. I thought that maybe she was being tossed to the wolves by Obama as a sacrificial lamb to give them something to chew on. Not so. She was a domino .. not a lamb .. and the next to fall was none other than the man with the Sally Jesse Rafael glasses, Tom Terrific himself, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Lordy, what a shame. Then later in the day we find out even more...

Americans now know that the "change we can believe in," which President Obama promised, means a taxes-optional administration. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rode out the bad news about his failure to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes on income he earned while working for the International Monetary Fund, and still won confirmation. The man now in charge of the IRS says it was "an innocent mistake." Remember that line - in case you are audited. Now come reports that Obama's pick to be both his health policy czar and secretary for health and human services - former Senate...

Thu Jan 9,12:52 AM ET South Korean trainer Kim Mi-jung and her monkey Conan play guitars during a monkey school show in Seoul, January 9, 2003. The show, which demonstrates how the monkeys are trained to imitate their trainers, will run until February 4. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

The media is kind of weird these days," said Al Gore. Let us interpret that for you: There are some conservative voices getting through, and that's not at all what Gore and other liberal Democrats are used to. From birth, they expected a thoroughly liberal media: It was an entitlement. And now there are all these . . . interlopers (or "fifth columnists," about which more in a minute). In the weeks following the Republicans' surprise victory in the November election, there's been a whole lot of whining going on. Pardon us if we don't get teary-eyed over these charges...