Did Daschle Resign Because He Was Caught in a Lie?

Byron York wrote about Senator Tom Daschle’s tax problems and asks some very good questions that now won’t have to be answered in public:

Daschle certainly knew that he had used the car and driver not just in 2008, but in 2005, 2006, and 2007 as well. According to a Finance Committee memo, the car service accounted for $73,031 in unreported income for 2005, $89,129 in unreported income for 2006, and $93,096 in unreported income for 2007. If Daschle knew that he had used the car, and he knew, or at least suspected, that he owed taxes on it, and he knew that, if he did owe taxes, he owed them going back three years — if he knew all that, why did he wait until the end of December 2008, when he was facing confirmation and the scrutiny that goes along with it, before dealing with the problem?

And there’s one more question. It has not been widely reported, but Daschle was audited by the IRS in 2006. There were no problems with the audit, but all sides concede that is because the IRS didn’t know that Daschle had been receiving the car service. If IRS investigators had known, they surely would have told Daschle that he owed the taxes. But Daschle didn’t tell the auditors about the car and driver; the audit occurred well before his June 2008 revelation that the car service was taxable.

A contrite-appearing Daschle met with members of the Finance Committee Monday afternoon. “My failure to recognize that the use of a car was income, and not a gift from a good friend, was a mistake,” he told reporters after the meeting. “When I realized the mistake, I notified officials and I paid the tax in full. It was inadvertent. But that’s no excuse, and I deeply apologize to President Obama, to my colleagues and to the American people.”

So far, no senator, Democrat or Republican, has stepped forward to oppose Daschle. On the other hand, no Republican senator, after Monday’s meeting, stepped forward to support him, either. At the moment, Republicans just want to know more. Why did Daschle wait? Did he really not know that the car and driver counted as income? Can the accountant’s version of events shed any more light on the story?

Now that he is out of the picture, those questions will not be answered. Did Daschle bow out because he knew he was caught in a lie, that being he didn’t know about it being taxable? We’ll never know for certain. Just another question that won’t be answered.

Those are starting to become more and more common in this administration.