No, it’s not Tom Daschle — at least not yet. A few weeks ago Barack Obama proudly named Nancy Killefer as the first Chief Performance Officer of the federal government. Her chief responsibility would be to root out waste in the federal government. Although curiously enough, in her previous career she had served as a tax cop, pushing for huge increases in the IRS budget to allow for far more audits. As it turns out, Ms. Killefer could have used an audit herself — it might have prompted her to pay her back taxes, and given her a chance at confirmation. Instead, she’s out:
It was not all that long ago that Obama was regularly being credited for an extraordinarily smooth transition, and having put together a brilliant team to run the government. Those seem awfully ironic now.
