The country has a new secretary of the Treasury – Timothy Geithner. He is a former executive of the World Bank, and has also served as chairman or whatever of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve. He is, allegedly, highly qualified.

But wait. Some strange things appear in his resume. Well, no, not in his resume, and not noticed by Barack Obama, who nominated him. Perhaps he was too hastily vetted.

Geithner had this thing about not paying income tax. Indeed, he was not hurting for money – he received a salary of hundress of thousands of dollars – he just needed more. Even though he was advised of his obligation to pay, he did not. For four years, he just let it slide, cheating the government and taxpayers out of some $34,000. Most people would be looking at jail time for such antics.

This is the man who was confirmed by a vote of the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate. They knew about his problem, but excused him. As one senator said, “He made an honest mistake.”

He is supposed to be of high intelligence. People who make that kind of mistake seem hardly qualfied to hold such a high position in the U.S. government. Was he the best that could be found? Does he have the kind of integrity for such a serious and highly responsible job? May God save the U.S. from such.

And Sen. Olympia Snowe was among those who voted to confirm him. Ugh.

Harvey Lord, South Paris