This from the AP:

Tom Daschle has withdrawn his nomination to be Health and Human Services secretary.That’s according to a joint White House statement from President Barack Obama and his former nominee.

Obama said Tuesday he accepted the withdrawal “with sadness and regret.”

Daschle has been battling for his nomination since it was disclosed he failed to pay more than $120,000 in taxes.

He said he’s withdrawing because he’s not a leader who has the full faith of Congress and will be a distraction.

At least one democrat is suffering the consequences of not paying his taxes, or in the words of Joe Biden not being “patriotic.”

This really is turning into an SNL skit. Can’t Obama find a Democrat who pays taxes? Last week it was Tim Geithner and this week it’s Tom Daschle. Last week’s excuse was that the financial crisis is too important to allow Geithner’s nomination to be held up by tax “mistakes”. Fine, we’ll just call that one a freebie. It was only $40,000 or so.

Now this week we have Tom Daschle on Capital Hill apologizing for his tax “mistakes” — to the tune of $120,000 and a year’s worth of free limo rides. I finally understand why democrats are so quick to raise taxes — because they don’t bother paying them anyway.

I love how cool the democrats are being over all this. With each new tax cheat that’s nominated we keep hearing things like “nobody’s perfect” and “everybody makes mistakes.” I suspect the reaction would be quite different if McCain had the won the election and made similar nominations. I can imagine Harry Reid or John Kerry thundering away at the podium declaring ” no one is above the law!!” But what all this proves (in case you didn’t already know) is that so-called “rule of law” only mattered when Bush was president.

This must be the “change” everybody keeps talking about.

Olbermann Watch has an official copy of the Keith Olbermann tax warrant. Hats off to Olbermann Watch for staying on this story, because Keith truly is the #1 Jackass in cable news. OW even has the official document in .pdf format for your downloading pleasure.

(image courtesy of Melanie Morgan)

This via Olbermann Watch:

New York State has issued a tax warrant against Keith Olbermann for failure to pay taxes on his humbly named personal corporation, Olbermann Broadcasting Empire, Inc. Olbermann is listed in legal records as the President of Olbermann Broadcasting Empire, Inc.