An Honest Mistake?

Like bleating Obamedia sheep, the liberal MSM talking heads are repeating the phony-baloney Obama official talking point that their treasury-secretary nominee made "an honest mistake" when he 'forgot' to pay taxes on IMF earnings for four years. Between him and Charlie Rangel, if this kind of tax cheating is 'honest' then let's free anyone convicted of tax evasion, because every tax evader made a 'mistake'.

But I am worried even if this cheat was a mistake, because Paulson's Lehman mistake cost us a financial crisis:

One day the preferred shares of Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ) and Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEHMQ - news - people ) were considered to be smart money speculations; the next day they were nearly worthless. You can thank Secretary Henry Paulson's panic attack for that. In September he suspended the preferred dividend payments for Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac when it was placed into conservatorship. With Lehman, Paulson allowed an overnight implosion, thereby causing $75 billion of damage that wouldn't have occurred with an orderly wind-down of this firm (according to Lehman's restructuring firm, Alvarez & Marsal).

Then, perhaps realizing his mistake (my emphasis), Paulson thought he could make things right by saving AIG, allowing it to continue paying its preferred dividends.

You see, an 'honest mistake' doesn't make it right, and another Treasury Secretary making 'honest mistakes' like, oops, screwing up on taxes or trying to save money by cheating, is the last thing we need in the financial system. Let's get a guy who did his taxes honestly. I suspect former Rep Bill Archer, who always did his own taxes, is still around.