Treasury Secretary-designee Tim Geithner's confirmation hits snag

By GottaLaff

Now what:

President-elect Barack Obama's transition office defended Treasury Secretary-designee Tim Geithner Monday amid reports he failed to pay the correct amount of taxes for a period of time and employed a housekeeper whose work authorization had expired. [...]

According the Wall Street Journal, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley — the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee — raised questions Tuesday about the status of a housekeeper who briefly worked for Geithner.

Geithner himself also reportedly didn't pay Social Security or Medicare taxes for "multiple years," according to the Wall Street Journal.

In his statement, Gibbs said Geithner made a "common mistake on his taxes, and was unaware that his part-time housekeeper's work authorization expired for the last three months of her employment. [...]

The Senate Finance Committee has released a document confirming Geithner failed to pay self employment taxes and employed a housekeeper whose authorization had expired.

According to the Obama transition team, transition officials discovered the problem on November 21, and notified the Senate Finance Committee soon after. The committee's release says members were informed of the problem on December 5.

Richardson watch: He "was not forthcoming" with Obama team

By GottaLaff

UPDATE:

On MSNBC just now, Ed Henry mentioned that Obama and Richardson spoke on Friday, not Saturday as it says below.

They also remarked on Richardson's surprise at how "quickly things turned around" when Team Obama decided to rid themselves of a problem as quickly as possible, and how it "was the last thing they needed". He repeated that Obama would still like to have Richardson as part of his team down the line.

Another MSNBCer also reported that this wouldn't hurt Obama in the long run, confirming what Jim Warren said previously, which is a confirmation we wanted to hear.

Here's a little more info about the Richardson problem:

Sources tell ABC News that Obama transition officials "feel that before he was formally offered the job of commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was not forthcoming with them about the federal investigation that is looking into whether the governor steered a state contract towards a major financial contributor."

"Once the investigation became more widely known through national media reports last month... the Obama Transition Team realized the FBI would not be able to give Richardson a clean political bill of health before the new administration is ready to send his nomination up to the Senate for confirmation."

Richardson formally asked President-elect Obama to withdraw his nomination yesterday.

The Obama team realized that last month?

UPDATE:
From Tapper's ABC piece:

The Richardson camp says the governor was forthcoming, with sources close to the governor noting that there had been reports about the controversy in local media such as the Albuquerque Journal as far back as August 2008. The governor discussed the investigation with the Obama team, they say, and believes that he and his administration have done nothing wrong. [...]

President-elect Obama did not ask Richardson to withdraw his name from consideration, sources from both camps say, but the fact that the confirmation seemed untenable in the short term was apparent to everyone involved.

There were some discussions about whether the confirmation process could be delayed a few months until the investigation concluded, sources say, but it became clear that wouldn't happen any time soon, and no one wanted to be seen as pressuring law enforcement officials to wrap up their investigation.

The governor spoke with the president-elect several times over the weekend, their last conversation being Saturday, when Richardson told Obama he was withdrawing his name from consideration.

So much for that smooth transition: DOJ blocks Obama transition team from reviewing wiretap, torture documents

By GottaLaff

Via Think Progress:

According to the Blog of Legal Times, the Justice Department is blocking President-elect Obama’s agency review team’s request “to review classified legal opinions related to secret CIA and National Security Agency programs.” Included in these documents are the “legal rationale of the NSA’s warrantless spying program and the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies, among other intelligence initiatives.” According to a senior Justice Department official, they are “reluctant to provide the opinions to Obama’s team without permission from the two intelligence agencies whose activities they address.” (HT: Daily Kos and Talk Left)

So much for those promises of cooperation.

US President George Bush today publicly congratulated Barack Obama on his historic victory and vowed "complete co-operation" as the first black US president moves into the White House. [...]

"I told the President-elect he can count on complete co-operation from my Administration as he makes the transition to the White House," said the outgoing President, whose second four-year term ends on January 20.

True to form.

NASA Not Cooperating With Obama Transition

This has to be the epitome of WTF? Wonder how far out of a job his ego is willing to go. h/t.

CAPE CANAVERAL – NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned.

In a heated 40-minute conversation last week with Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator who heads the space transition team, a red-faced Griffin demanded to speak directly to Obama, according to witnesses.

In addition, Griffin is scripting NASA employees and civilian contractors on what they can tell the transition team and has warned aerospace executives not to criticize the agency’s moon program, sources said.

Griffin’s resistance is part of a no-holds-barred effort to preserve the Constellation program, the delayed and over-budget moon rocket that is his signature project.

Poll-itics: Obama gains support as news media piles on

By GottaLaff

Obama Honeymoon Continues

President-elect Obama "is entering the White House with an enormous reservoir of goodwill from an American public that is rooting for his success in the face of bad economic times," a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

"The poll found that 73% of adults approve of the way he is handling the transition and his preparations for becoming president... Polling indicates that the nation is more unified around Mr. Obama than it was for either Bill Clinton in 1992 or George W. Bush in 2000. Americans say the challenges, too, are greater, with 77% of those surveyed predicting Mr. Obama will face bigger problems than most recent presidents have."

The "news" [sic] media must feel threatened, because Obama is too popular, and that's simply unacceptable. Or maybe they're just bored and just need a new toy to play with. Or they're pushing for better ratings (that's a given). Or they're tools (another given).

Why else would they follow Republican talking points and insist that Obama is tainted even after Blah-Blah-Blago and Pat Fitzgerald both made it clear that he isn't? Why else would they repeat the ancient and debunked GOP talking points about Obama pallin' around with Tony Rezko? Etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Clinton redux.