on setting a thief to catch a thief

As comic relief from my I Am Not a Crook postings, Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV, there's this delightful quote from Bloomberg yesterday, in which our tax-evading Treasury Secretary pledges to get tough on, um, tax evaders:

'Closing loopholes and hunting tax evaders are especially important at a time when the economy is deteriorating and the government is running a record budget deficit, [Timothy] Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee today in Washington.'

Did the Senators really not burst into joyous laughter to hear the fox complain that somebody has been raiding the chicken coop? Well, perhaps they just look at Mr Geithner as the Robin Hood of tax evasion, in that he withheld his taxes at a time of peace and plenty, then manfully paid up when the economy tanked. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford