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Somehow, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA) has been able to keep a straight face while decrying the "culture of corruption" among Republicans. In retrospect, the nature of the infractions on which she based the accusation seem almost quaint in comparison to the unfathomable abuses of federal monies and power now occurring under a Democrat controlled Congress and Executive branch.

For starters, she was forced to misapply the term to what were, in reality, only scandals, such as the sordid e-mails and text messages of Congressman Mark Foley (R.-FL) to congressional pages, or the amorous toe-tapping, apparently intended to incite interest from the occupant of the next stall, by Senator Larry Craig (R.-ID) in a Minneapolis Airport restroom.

While both situations were indicative of severe personal failings that would certainly be of interest to constituents who should want their region's representation in Congress to reflect higher standards, neither incident could be labeled as real corruption. That indictment, exploited so relentlessly by Pelosi and her minions throughout the last mid-term election cycle, simply did not fit its intended GOP targets to nearly the degree that the many recent revelations of true corruption apply to the Democrats.

The examples abound, although it is difficult to determine who among Obama's cadre of compromised cabinet nominees had engaged in the most flagrant violation of the law. But as a pattern of widespread corruption continues to emerge among those the new president considers fit to advise him, it is becoming impossible to deny that such legal infringements do not, in his mind, conflict with the plans he has either for his administration or for the country.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner barely raised an eyebrow among his Democrat colleagues (and among far too few Republicans) when it was revealed that he had failed to pay $42,000 dollars in taxes that he owed on earnings from the International Monetary Fund. Those Senators who nevertheless confirmed him would have to be criminally incompetent to actually believe Geithner's juvenile excuse that he had simply overlooked that enormous payroll as being subject to taxation.

Yet the full extent of the truth is more incriminating still. As part of a compensation package far more generous than anything the average working American might ever receive, the IMF gives certain of its employees an additional bonus specifically calculated to offset the income tax bill. And it was on this very payment that Geithner had wantonly refused to remit his taxes. Despite such a flagrant violation of tax law that would have netted enormous fines, or perhaps even jail time, for any ordinary American committing a similar infraction, Geithner was subsequently confirmed with relative ease, and is now emplaced to manage the finances of the United States.

Upon being nominated by Obama to the post of Health and Human Services Secretary, it was revealed that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D.-SD) engaged in his own similarly disgraceful behavior. The gratuitous provision of a limousine from Democrat benefactor Leo Hindery, on which Daschle owed significant taxes he never paid, puts the lie to his sanctimonious one-time assertion that "Tax cheaters cheat us all."

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