A Regular $aint Among Men

According to The Cable, Jack Lew answers to a higher authority.

Jack Lew, the deputy secretary of state who is President Obama's nominee to head the White House Office of Management and Budget, is coming under fire today because of a $944,578 bonus he took from Citigroup just before he joined the administration last year. But those who know him in the State Department defended him Thursday as a man who is above reproach and argued that his actions were completely on the level.

Citigroup paid the hefty bonus to Lew about two weeks before he joined the State Department as deputy secretary of state, the Washington Times reported. Lew had already disclosed a $1.1 million compensation package covering his Citigroup work in 2007, but the amount of the newly disclosed bonus, which covers his work for the banking conglomerate in 2008, wasn't known until today.

-- snip --

In answers submitted to the [Senate Foreign Relations] Committee and in his 2009 ethics filing, Lew said that the bonus was coming, he just didn't know the amount at that time, the official said.

According to today's Washington Times story, records disclosed yesterday by the State Department show that Mr. Lew received the $944,578 bonus four days after he filed his 2008 ethics disclosure.

Evidently, Mister Above Reproach did not see any reason to file an amended disclosure statement back in 2008, or to fill in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the size of Citigroup's payout to him one day sooner than he had to. Modesty must be among his many virtues.

It's a good thing this is 'On the Level' Lew we're talking about, otherwise people might put an ugly interpretation on his unhurried disclosure. I'm sure he's a busy man.

The Cable goes on to sing Lew's praises some more:

Moreover, those who know Lew, an observant Orthodox Jew, say he's even more kosher in his professional dealings than he is when separating milk and meat at dinner time.

"If this city and government were filled with Jack Lews, we wouldn't need ethics rules," the official said, "because, like Hebrew National, Jack holds himself accountable to a higher authority."

A higher authority? You mean like Citigroup?