Geithner’s Nannygate

Tim Geithner’s confirmation hearings may not go so smoothly, after all: Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, is looking into the treasury secretary nominee’s nonpayment of Social Security and Medicare taxes and his employment of a housekeeper who lacked proper immigration papers. Senators are discussing the matter behind closed doors today. Geithner is probably hoping his Cabinet nomination doesn’t turn out like Zoe Baird’s did. Bill Clinton’s first choice for attorney general, Baird went down in flames when it emerged she had hired an illegal immigrant nanny, an episode that later came to be known as Nannygate.