And another example of a story of unethical behavior by a politician that will lead to absolute silence from the Houston area's local self-appointed ethics watchdog because the perp, Ron Kirk, is a Democrat (and one that he supported for high office).

Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.

The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk’s handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

The disclosure made the former Dallas mayor the latest in a string of top-level Obama administration appointees found to have underpaid their taxes, following Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle, who withdrew as candidate for Health and Human Services secretary. Nancy Killefer, Obama’s pick for chief performance officer, also bowed out amid tax problems.

It might be easy to give Ron Kirk the benefit of the doubt if this was not one more example of a pattern of unpaid taxes by a prominent Democrat appointed by Barack Obama to high office. And given the high ethics standards that Obama claimed he was going to bring to the executive branch, I don't see how Kirk can be allowed to survive.

But then again, after putting a blatant tax cheat like Tim Geithner in charge at the Treasury Department, I guess anything is possible.