Maybe SCOTUS Nominee has a Nanny Problem?

White House To Withhold Nominee's Tax Returns
Document Release Excludes First Bush Administration

The Bush administration will not give Senate investigators access to the federal tax returns of Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., White House and congressional officials said yesterday, a break with precedent that could exacerbate a growing conflict over document disclosure in the confirmation process.

Although nominees to the high court in recent decades were required to provide their three most recent annual tax forms, the administration will neither collect such documents from Roberts nor share them with the Senate Judiciary Committee, the officials said. Instead, the Internal Revenue Service will produce a one-page summary.

The White House yesterday began releasing the first of 75,000 pages of documents stemming from Roberts's service as a lawyer in President Ronald Reagan's administration two decades ago but refused to release papers from his time as deputy solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993. These papers, Bush aides said, concern internal executive branch deliberations that remain privileged.

Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups immediately assailed the decision to withhold the more recent files, sharpening a dispute over the nominee's record.

Many a rich person has faltered at the Senate confirmation door for failing to pay Social Security taxes. I remember my public schoolteacher parents struggling with the SSA and IRS paperwork for the neighbor who cleaned our house once a week during the school year. They felt it was important that she get credit with the Social Security Administration for her work, so she would get the largest social security benefit possible. Now that's a family value. Caring about your neighbors and the people who work for you.

I have no idea why they're not releasing Roberts tax returns. Maybe they're thinking about their next nominee (Gonzales?) and some issue on his tax return. Just sounds fishy to me.

You heard it here first: It's a nanny.