MORE ON TIM GEITHNER AND CONGRESS:

Senators who will vote to confirm his Cabinet appointment do not appear overly concerned by either of these “honest mistakes,” even though one of his larger responsibilities at Treasury will be oversight of the Internal Revenue Service.

Neither do they seem likely to do more than gently slap the wrist of one of their own, Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee.

Dodd, readers may recall, received a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide, as one of that financial firm’s more prominent “Friends of Angelo.” Countrywide, incidentally, has since been acquired by Bank of America.

Meanwhile, over on the House side, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who took up the gavel two years ago with a promise to “drain the swamp” and clear up ethical abuses ignored by her Republican predecessor, has a festering problem of her own — what to do with New York Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means committee. That’s the panel that writes the tax laws all the rest of us are required to follow.

Hope and change!