Hey Obama, Sprio Agnew Resigned From The Vice Presidency For Evading $10,000 In Taxes

• January 31, 2009

To date the known total amount of taxes evaded by Obama cabinet picks (Daschle and Geithner) is $183,000.
Richard Nixon’s first Vice President, Spiro Agnew, resigned from office after pleading nolo contendre to charges of evading $10,000 in taxes. That’s roughly $42,000 in 2009 dollars.
So, why aren’t Daschle and Geithner being called on to resign after admitting to tax evasions of their own?
And by the way, with Daschle’s most recent revelations of shady dealings, we now have three Obama cabinet picks that have fallen under the cloud of scandal: Daschle ($140,000 in unpaid taxes), Geithner ($43,000 in unpaid taxes) and FTC pick Bill Richardson (resigned after evidence of kickbacks received from a New Mexico contractor emerged).
Has any President had more problem with his cabinet picks than Obama? This seems rather unprecedented. And certainly not like change we can believe in.

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, Politics

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

Again, I didnt’ go back 35 years. That’s what you people do every time you bring up Carter and now, Agnew.
Lefty McGee

The answer is obvious…Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were much more moral with higher standards than Barack Obama and today’s Democrats! Heh.

Right. The Watergate break in…a pinnacle of morality. The Saturday Night Massacre…more morality at work. The 18 and a half minute gap on the tapes Nixon attempted to use executive privilege to hide…yeah, a load of ethics and morality there.

Give me a break.
Bat One

Democrat Diane Feinstein funneled nearly a billion and a half $$$ in no-bid federal contracts to her husband’s companies. Democrat Jack Murtha has earmarked billions of DoD contracts to companies which just happen to be clients of his brother Kip, a Washington lobbyist. And the assorted Lefty apologists would have us believe that corruption is the exclusive purview of Republicans?

Nixon, Agnew, Duke Cunningham and the rest are all gone. Murtha, Feinstein, Daschle, and William “Cold Cash” Jefferson are still drawing taxpayer paid salaries as if they’ve done nothing wrong. There is probably as much corruption on one side of the aisle as the other, but Republicans clean up their messes. Democrats wallow in theirs.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/realitybasedbob/ realitybasedbob

More from another source about Spiro:

Agnew became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Maryland for financial irregularities while he held state office. Rather than face trial, Agnew resigned and entered a plea of no contest to charges of evading income tax. He was sentenced to three years probation and fined $10,000. After he left office Agnew avoided publicity and went into business as an international broker. In 1981 he was ordered by a Maryland court to repay more than $248,000 to cover bribes he took while in state office.

…early into his second term he was advised that he was under investigation by federal prosecutors looking into allegations that he had regularly solicited and accepted bribes during his tenure as county executive and Maryland governor. As the cloud of Watergate began to envelope Richard Nixon and the presidency, the situation became increasingly untenable.

This intolerable political situation developed into an intricate plea bargaining process. As a result, federal authorities produced Agnew’s “nolo contendere” plea of October 1, 1973. He pleaded no contest in Federal court to one misdemeanor charge of income tax evasion and was fined $10,000 and put on probation for three years. He was also forced to resign his office. His legal expenses, fines and other fees, totaling $160,000, were paid by his good friend Frank Sinatra. He was disbarred by the state of Maryland in 1974. The second of America’s vice presidents to resign (John C. Calhoun had done so the previous century), Agnew was the only one to quit under a cloud of scandal.

…In 1981 he was sued by three citizens of Maryland who sought to have the money he had reportedly received illegally from the state returned. After a few years of legal maneuvers the citizens won their case and Agnew had to reimburse $248,735 to the state coffers.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

Or is the new ethical standard:

Well…compared to Tony Rezko…they’re not so bad!
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/realitybasedbob/ realitybasedbob

Let’s try and stay current…

Hey Obama, Sprio Agnew Resigned From The Vice Presidency For Evading $10,000 In Taxes

By Rob on January 30, 2009 at 09:43 pm
mnconservative

I’ll try to use small words for you lefties out there. The subject here isn’t who was moral or not. The subject is that when the tax evasion, bribes, or whatever else was discovered the Republicans cleaned up their own house. Agnew, Nixon, and just about any other Republican you can name either stepped down or the Republicans got rid of them, whether by pressure or legal prosecution. You dem’s not only cover and make excuses up for the crooks on your side of the aisle you actually endorse them to be the advisers to the President. Then you use your influence with the MSM to make sure that the American people never hear about it. According to gaffe king Joe Biden, “paying taxes is the patriotic thing to do.” Clearly Daschle and Geithner are not patriots. Hypocrisy with a capital H!
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

It was a bit more than that, stem:

On October 10, 1973, Spiro Agnew became the second Vice President to resign the office. Unlike John C. Calhoun, who resigned to take a seat in the Senate, Agnew resigned and then pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he accepted $29,500 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland. The bribes were paid to Agnew by some members of the construction industry to get their projects approved. When Agnew moved from Annapolis, Maryland to Washington, D.C., he continued to demand payments. Angered, the construction men turned government’s witnesses. Agnew was fined $10,000 and put on three years’ probation. The $10,000 fine only covered the taxes and interest due on what was “unreported income” from 1967. The plea bargain was later mocked as the “greatest deal since the Lord spared Isaac on the mountaintop”, by former Maryland Attorney General Stephen Sachs.[7] Students of Professor John F. Banzhaf III from the George Washington University Law School, collectively known as Banzhaf’s Bandits, found four residents of the state of Maryland willing to put their names on a case and sought to have Agnew repay the state $268,482 – the amount he was known to have taken in bribes. After two appeals by Agnew, he finally resigned himself to the matter and a check for $268,482 was turned over to Maryland state Treasurer William James in early 1983.
As a result of his nolo contendere plea, Agnew was later disbarred by the State of Maryland. As in most jurisdictions, Maryland lawyers are automatically disbarred after being convicted of a felony, and a nolo contendere plea exposes the defendant to the same penalties as a guilty plea.

Taking bribes, money laundering. Not exactly a simple affair for the VP. But, being a republican, it was almost genetic that he be dishonest.
jpe

I’ve got no sympathy for Daschle & Geithner, but you have to admit that bribery (and its tax cousin: failure to report the bribe as income [which, IIRC, the internal revenue code expressly notes is part of adjusted gross income]) is a little more troubling than getting a paid driver and car and failing to report it as comp.
Hoss

Hard to believe the tax-lovin’ leftards don’t like to pay their own.Just more on the democrat culture of corruption, but instead of getting rid of these guys, Obama is hiring them like it’s a resume enhancement.
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/realitybasedbob/ realitybasedbob

Nutter spin:

Spiro Agnew was a Republican. Democrats don’t accept responsibility OR have to be accountable for their actions.

zsa zsa

The Truth:

Then, on April 10, 1973, the vice president called Haldeman to his office to report a problem of his own. The U.S. attorney in Maryland, investigating illegal campaign contributions and kickbacks, had questioned Jerome Wolff, Agnew’s former aide. Wolff had kept verbatim accounts of meetings during which Agnew discussed raising funds from those who had received state contracts. Agnew swore that “it wasn’t shakedown stuff, it was merely going back to get support from those who had benefitted from the Administration.” Since prosecutor George Beall was the brother of Maryland Republican Senator J. Glenn Beall, Agnew wanted Haldeman to have Senator Beall intercede with his brother–a request that Haldeman wisely declined.

President Nixon was not at all shocked to learn that his vice president had become enmeshed in a bribery scandal… Then, that summer, the Justice Department reported that the allegations against Agnew had grown more serious. Even as vice president, Agnew had continued to take money for past favors, and he had received some of the payments in his White House office.

…Agnew, a proud man filled with moral indignation, reacted to these arguments by digging in his heels and taking a stance that journalists described as “aggressively defensive.” He refused the initial suggestions from the White House that he resign voluntarily, after which Agnew believed that high-level officials “launched a campaign to drive me out by leaking anti-Agnew stories to the media.”

…Agnew defiantly shouted, “I will not resign if indicted!”

…Haig assured Agnew’s staff that, if the vice president resigned and pleaded guilty on the tax charge, the government would settle the other charges against him and he would serve no jail sentence. But if Agnew continued to fight…

…Meanwhile, Agnew’s attorneys had entered into plea bargaining with the federal prosecutors. In return for pleading nolo contendere, or no contest, to the tax charge and paying $160,000 in back taxes (with the help of a loan from Frank Sinatra), he would receive a suspended sentence and a $10,000 fine.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/america_is_back/#c397018 DINO

I wasn’t the one who created the post about Spiro Agnew, idiot.
http://www.wewantavote.org/ JohnnyO

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http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Spiro Agnew was a Republican. Democrats don’t accept responsibility OR have to be accountable for their actions.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

it was almost genetic that he be dishonest.

Oh, you mean like you when you say people “rejoice” over something that they merely report!
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

a load of ethics and morality there.

Closed Captioning for the Irony Impaired: Duh!
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

The answer is obvious…Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were much more moral with higher standards than Barack Obama and today’s Democrats! Heh.
sayanything-2483

Again, I didnt’ go back 35 years. That’s what you people do every time you bring up Carter and now, Agnew.

Actually you did, you fell right into it.
sayanything-2483

Let’s try and stay current…
sayanything-2483

I wasn’t the one who created the post about Spiro Agnew, idiot.
DINO on January 31, 2009 at 09:09 am

I know you weren’t…but going back 35 years? Isn’t it a “given” that both sides have their share of scum bags?
sayanything-2483

Taking bribes, money laundering. Not exactly a simple affair for the VP. But, being a republican, it was almost genetic that he be dishonest.
DINO on January 31, 2009 at 12:04 am

Let’s try to stay in present times.

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Hey Obama, Sprio Agnew Resigned From The Vice Presidency For Evading $10,000 In Taxes

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