The American Pundit

Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, failed to pay the required taxes on a chauffeur service lent to him by a wealthy Democratic friend until his vetting process, ABC News reports.

In 2005 Daschle became chairman of the Executive Advisory Board at InterMedia Advisors, a private equity firm founded by prominant Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery. The former senator from South Dakota began using Hindery’s chauffeur service the same year. While not party of his official compensation package, the law requires Daschle to report them on his income taxes. But he didn’t.

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.

A spokesman for Daschle says that he asked his accountant to review the tax implications of the driver months before the nomination, yet the required taxes weren’t paid until the vetting process had begun.

Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has reportedly called a private meeting with his colleagues for 5pm Monday to discuss the implications of this news. Daschle has personally refused to comment, as has Leo Hindery.

This would be the second nominee of Obama’s to run into tax problems during the nomination process. It was discovered that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had, despite warnings from the IRS, failed to pay taxes on his income from the International Monetary Fund for several years. He was confirmed despite that revalation.

More: Ed Morrissey:

How many more people will Obama nominate who either are too incompetent or too dishonest to declare all of their income and pay all of their taxes?  Is this the new career track for tax cheats — a Cabinet office?

Good question.