Mr hope and change has a problem.  He keeps acting like a normal politician.  He nominates Geitner for Secretary of treasury, despite the fact he had unpaid taxes.  Geitner somehow is approved.

Then Tom Daschle resigns under a cloud of shame also for taxes, and Obama gravely admits his mistake.

But hey what about Geitner?  Will you ask him to resign as he had tax issues too?  I doubt it.  If he did I might give him some respect.

Then we have his stern rules about lobbyists…which were immediately waived for some other appointees.  No rule like a rule not enforced…

Congress is filled with examples of elitists who ignore the law and when called on it, they sadly admit a mistake, and get forgiven.

What happened to being above reproach?  To being a servant to the law and to the people?

And now Obama adds another shady character to the pile, none other than King County’s own Ron Sims.

Sound Politics via Hot Air:

Unfortunately, as our friend Stefan Sharkansky reports from Sound Politics, Obama’s appointment of Ron Sims to the #2 position at HUD sends exactly the opposite message.  A court levied the biggest fine for illegal record withholding against Sims in Washington State history — and that record hasn’t finished yet:

Sims is culpable for what may well become the largest fine for violations of public records laws in U.S. history: see Yousoufian, Armen

My own public records suit against Sims (for delaying release of election records which revealed that King County officials unlawfully counted hundreds of ineligible ballots in the 2004 governor’s race) goes to trial in April.

The Yousoufian case should have derailed Sims’ appointment all by itself.  The Seattle Times just reported on the state Supreme Court decision that demanded a higher fine for King County under Sims’ governance for illegally blocking records that Yousoufian wanted to investigate the public financing of Qwest Field, the stadium where the Seattle Seahawks now play.  Their years-long delay ensured that Yousoufian could not find any potentially damaging information before a referendum that approved public financing for the NFL stadium.  The court found “hundreds” of instances where they gave misleading information or refused to give information at all while Sims was King County Executive.

Sharkansky feels Yousoufian’s pain.  When the Seattle blogger attempted to investigate King County’s performance in the 2004 election, the county — under Sims’ governance — gave him the same kind of runaround rather than comply with legal records requests.  Sharkansky eventually discovered what Sims and King County wanted to keep hidden: they counted ineligible ballots during the recount to give Christine Gregoire the necessary margin of victory over Dino Rossi for governor. Sharkansky’s suit will finally go to trial in April.  Sims might get called to testify, and if Sharkansky wins, King County can expect to pay another large fine to mitigate Sims’ mismanagement and opacity.

So much for hope and change and Obama’s call for transparency.

How many more scandals and proofs of his lack of judgment will we see in his first 100 days?

The only bright spot?  We got rid of Ron Sims here in Seattle.

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