‘Some wept. Others headed out for drinks and chocolate waffles.”

So the Washington Post reported in August of 2007, when EduCap, a “nonprofit company,” laid off “scores” of employees two weeks after Congress opened investigations into the loan firm, “which has been a financial boon for its chairman and her family. The company says it has helped students pay for college, but critics say its nonprofit status has not resulted in better loans for students.”

From that same 2007 Washington Post story we learn that:

The layoffs come two weeks after The Washington Post detailed how EduCap’s spending practices have benefited its chairman, Catherine B. Reynolds, whose annual compensation has totaled about $1 million. The nonprofit company, which is exempt from paying federal income tax, bought a Gulfstream jet worth about $30 million for her use and donated millions to a nonprofit organization run by her husband.

According to accounts from more than a dozen current and former EduCap employees, the company laid off at least half of its workers yesterday and said most of the remaining staff would soon lose their jobs. Some executives announced to workers yesterday that the company was “going dark” and might get out of the loan business soon, the employees said. Others familiar with EduCap’s operation confirmed that Reynolds has been trying to get out of the loan business.

Today Congress is considering EduCap again, as the Senate Finance Committee looks into secretary of Department of Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle’s ties to the firm. Senate staff are investigating “whether Mr. Daschle should have registered as a lobbyist while working at the law firm Alston & Bird, which itself was registered as a lobbyist for EduCap and for many health care companies,” the New York Times reported over the weekend. His financial-disclosure report indicates that Daschle received more than $5,000 for providing EduCap with “policy advice,” though we do not know the exact amount.

Add that to the $140,000 in taxes Daschle chose not to pay. If Nexis searches are any indication, the Obama administration might want to cut their losses and drop Daschle as their HHS nominee immediately.

One of the most memorable—and nasty—lines from the 2008 presidential campaign came during the Republican primary, when former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee announced, “I want to be a president who reminds you of the guy you work with, not the guy who laid you off.” The remark was a not-so-veiled reference to one of his opponents, Mitt Romney, the former businessman and Massachusetts governor. It was a rotten line and Huckabee’s prescriptions were off, but it was one that showed that Huckabee at least had an awareness that people, particularly in tough economic times, want to have the sense that the government is on their side. (It is, after all, a representative government.)

The Obama campaign was smart to let the media have at Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber and not pile on themselves. Both Palin and Joe resonated with a whole lot of people. You may not want Joe or Sarah running the country just this moment—especially after hearing some of the interviews and seeing Joe’s tax record—but many seemed glad they are among us, questioning limousine-driven former senators who don’t pay their taxes but are quick to raise yours.

You can certainly say that Joe should have paid his taxes, and Sarah could have brushed up a bit more on the national scene, but now the agents of change are in charge in Washington—and if the secretary of the Treasury and now the nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services are any indication, they’ve taken to overlooking blatant disregard for the law for their crowd. If basic respect for the law isn’t a sufficiently compelling consideration, Team Obama ought to take a lesson from Huckabee: Do you see how this looks to the average citizen who pays his taxes and does his own driving?