Let me be the first to congratulate Timothy Geithner, our new Treasury secretary, the latest member of the “too big to fail” club.

Geithner, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, admitted to Congress that he had failed to pay his Social Security and Medicare taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund, even though the IRS had sent him a letter informing him he was in violation, even though his employer gave him the money to pay the bill as part of his compensation.

None of this disqualified Golden Timmy. The Senate handed him the keys to the Mint – literally. Golden Timmy is now our top tax collector because the IRS is part of the Treasury Department’s bailiwick.

While a handful of senators objected, it was nearly universally agreed that Golden Timmy’s talents were so exceptional, President Obama and the nation simply has to have him. There are more than 300 million Americans but, apparently, Geithner is the only person who can lead us out of this “crisis of confidence.” I’m confident Golden Timmy will do nothing of the sort.

Because the Tim Geithner’s of the world are the reason we’re in this mess to begin with. Geithner may be a financial genius.

But he’s also a tax cheat and the latest example of the royal prerogatives of government, corporate and church officials who pass laws and impose regulations on the people while exempting themselves from the very same laws and regulations. Thefeds have deemed some companies “too big to fail,” and I guess that makes Geithner “too talented to be honest.” The rest of us are cannon fodder.

While the California governor tries to figure out how to triple the car tax – the very same tripled car tax that got Gray Davis tarred and feathered – and while you now need 16 quarters to feed the meter for one hour of parking, it’s comforting to know L.A. Mayor Tony V’s office alone has 13 take-home cars. City Attorney Rocky “my wife was driving” Delgadillo’s office has 10 cars, and the 15 L.A. City Council members and their staffs have between seven and nine cars each. That’s 1,131 take-home cars, according to City Controller Laura Chick’s audit of city’s vehicles, not counting the 900 police and fire employees who have a car perk. Crisis of confidence anyone?

From the White House to Wall Street, from Spring Street to your unpaved street, America has fattened up on easy credit and zero accountability. The tragic-comic last days of the Bush administration would be easier to swallow if the same stench isn’t following President Obama into his 100-day honeymoon: His former Senate seat was for sale in Illinois, his designated Commerce secretary, Bill Richardson, the current governor of New Mexico, had to step down because of his own pay-for-play problems, followed by Golden Timmy’s exploits. It’s not encouraging.

Closer to home, the Sacramento Passion Play has degenerated into political slapstick. There isn’t a statesman within 500 miles of the 916 area code.

Here in L.A., Measure B, the so-called solar initiative, was written by the labor unions for the labor unions at the expense of Department of Water and Power ratepayers, meaning all of us. It’s a stupendously cynical cash grab at a time when Angelenos are really hurting.

And here’s the salt to rub in the wound: The authors of this governmental malpractice and theft are nearly certain to win on March 3. Can anyone with a straight face make the case that Councilman Jack Weiss is too big to fail in his campaign as L.A.’s city attorney?

But America, California and Los Angeles are not too big to fail. History is littered with the bones of fallen empires. The cause of death is always the same – hubris, greed, isolation from and contempt for the people.

I’ve never been good at predictions or mathematics, but I’ll go out on a limb here: The road we’re on is coming to a rapid dead end. Bills must be paid. We can’t succeed by punishing the productive and rewarding the destructive.

We can’t keep voting ourselves stupid.