Thursday, January 22, 2009

Here we go with more tax problems, now from Caroline Kennedy

I don't know why folks, WITH MONEY, have issues paying taxes and have domestic help issues. We saw two of Bill Clinton's nominees derailed because of this, now we are going through Timothy Geithner and his oopsy of not paying taxes. Now the real reason Caroline Kennedy withdrew her bid for the Senate, taxes.

The whole thing with Caroline is that her whole rollout was botched from the beginning. I still believed that she would have been a solid senator, once appointed and a huge boost to New York Democrats running in 2010. The news last night was conflicting about Kennedy if she was in or out, then it was rumor that it was personal and about Ted Kennedy's health.

Well, here we go again. A person with money, but failed or staff failed to pay taxes.

Problems involving taxes and a household employee surfaced during the vetting of Caroline Kennedy and derailed her candidacy for the Senate, a person close to Gov. David A. Paterson said on Thursday, in an account at odds with Ms. Kennedy’s own description of her reasons for withdrawing.

[snip]

During the early afternoon Wednesday, the aide said, Ms. Kennedy became aware of what the aide referred to as a “personal situation” that could prevent her from fulfilling her duties as senator. The personal situation was not related to the seizure that her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, suffered during an inauguration luncheon on Tuesday, the aide said, declining to be more specific.

[snip]

Several people who have spoken to the governor said he had decided on Ms. Kennedy some time ago. A Democrat operative with ties to Mr. Paterson said the governor told Ms. Kennedy last week that she was the choice, but that he would use the next few days to do “a little misdirection to keep the suspense up.”

A person close to the governor adamantly denied that assertion.

“The fiasco of the last 24 hours reinforced why the governor never intended to choose her,” the person said.

[snip]

Caroline Kennedy, who stunningly quit her push for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, is dealing with a "tax problem and a potential nanny issue," a source close to Gov. Paterson said Thursday.

"She was facing some potentially embarrassing personal issues" that came up during the vetting process, the source said, adding that the governor had decided she was not up to the job anyway.

From a bad rollout to a hideous ending. Caroline's people did not handle her well at all. If Geithner can be confirmed, the tax, domestic issue could have been explained and she still could have accepted the position.



NY Times
NY Daily News

Home Page