Wait a minute -- now, let me get this straight.

President-elect Obama has chosen a man to be secretary of the United States Treasury, where all our tax dollars go, but he's a man who can't seem to fill out proper tax returns himself.

Timothy Geithner, the nominee, is the same man who was head of the Federal Reserve in New York and apparently couldn't see what was happening to the many financial institutions right under his nose.

I mean, if you or I failed to pay taxes on our humble income, the Internal Revenue Service would be all over us like a blanket.

His failure to pay $34,000 in federal taxes while he was a senior official at the International Monetary Fund boggles the mind.

This is the guy who will be charged with convincing skeptical taxpayers that a fiscal recovery plan is in their own best interest. Can we have any confidence with this "slight error" in paying income taxes, something we all do every April, that this supposed financial wizard can direct the treasury?

Two of the four years in which he failed to pay taxes on his income were years in which he prepared the returns himself. I gave up preparing mine years ago, and mine is easy compared with his. His professional help didn't work out well, either.

Then there's the matter of a domestic who worked for him legally -- she had a work certificate -- but continued to work for him for months after the certificate expired, thereby becoming an illegal.

The nominee will come before the Senate Finance Committee for a confirmation hearing on Wednesday, and we expect that there will be some hurrumphing from a few of his inquisitors, but in the end, they will approve his selection.

The president-elect said his nominee was "uniquely qualified."

When it comes to picking the right people for the right job, I keep hearing outgoing President George Bush's words -- "Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job."

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New York Gov. David Paterson has so far kept his counsel as to who he will select to replace Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is on her way to be Secretary of State. Now the latest opinion poll shows that state Attorney General Andy Cuomo is ahead of early favorite -- but unqualified -- Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg.

The guy says he's not influenced by the polls and even allowed that someone who only received a 5 percent approval could be chosen. Again, I hope he is not swayed by the Kennedy name or the big city pols who have been pushing JFK's daughter. One of the biggest supporters is Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

She may play well on the upper East Side of Manhattan but how will she play in Buffalo or Olean?

Either Cuomo or Rep. Carolyn Maloney would be my choice, but I don't have any say in the matter. What do I know?

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The 1st Taxing District, one of the governmental anachronisms created with the consolidation of Norwalk in 1913, has chosen a former city DPW director as district general manager. The announcement was made by Ken Slapin, once an active Democrat as town chairman, council member and a candidate for mayor.

It has been said that he is a very active district commissioner, even to the point of micromanaging the operation.

Dominick DiGangi was DPW commissioner from 1980 to 1996 and is a licensed engineer.

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Hizzoner Dick Moccia has stirred the pot in the ongoing tension between the administration and the Norwalk Historical Commission. He has chosen not to reappoint Gail Wall, who happens to be chairwoman of the Democratic Town and City Committee.

She was among the leaders in fighting the demolition of a house at 93 East Avenue, owned by the owners of the Norwalk Inn & Conference Center. They want to demolish it and expand the inn. Right now, the matter is in court.

The historians claim the core of the house dates back to the Revolutionary War. That may be. I hope the research is better than that concerning the Incerto house that stood at the corner of Harbor Avenue and Commerce Street, which the city disassembled and now is stored in a trailer truck, waiting to be reassembled somewhere.

Turns out that the house did not survive the burning of Norwalk by the Brits -- it wasn't even built until several years later.

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Democratic Councilman-at-Large Doug Sutton will resign his seat and the Democratic committee is expected to replace him with Anna Duleep, a District D Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for council two years ago.

She, if chosen, might even vote on matters that come before the body. Sutton had a reputation for abstaining on most matters.

It has been said that among the two items he voted against were ones that he originally introduced. That may be apocryphal.

He is a retired science teacher, having taught in the New Canaan system. Duleep is a math teacher in Westport.

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An interesting sidelight to the dramatic rescue of the passengers of that plane that landed in the Hudson River on Thursday -- why is it that an event like that draws politicians like bees to honey?

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Gov. Paterson, a bunch of council members and department heads all crowded around the network microphones, hoping to make it on the evening news.

The only ones we want to hear about are the heroic pilot and his crew, the ferryboat crews and the firefighters and police officers who responded to the emergency and performed efficiently and professionally.

Who cares what the pols have to say? They had nothing to do with the dramatic events of the day.

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Minnesotans will have to wait until next month to see if they have a new senator. Al Franken's election will rest in the hands of the state Supreme Court, which says it won't act until Feb. 5.

Republican Norm Coleman is proceeding with his suit, claiming he had the winning margin over the Democratic former "Saturday Night Live" comedian.

Meanwhile, back in Illinois, that state's second senator, Roland Burris, is officially the man. In those shots of him leaving Congress the other day, he sure looked like the cat that ate the canary.

Sen. Harry Reid enhanced his bumbling image after doing a 360 on seating the guy appointed by Illinois' screwy governor. Reid had egg on his face over that one.

Just in the nick of time: the Illinois Senate voted to impeach Rod Blagojevich, the man who appointed Burris. Don't count Guv Blago out just yet.

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Pardon my Red Sox bias, but I don't blame a lot of New York taxpayers for complaining about the subsidies sought by the Yankees to pay for their new ball field. The Pin Stripers want another $259 million for the stadium, being built right next to the old one.

Why did they need a new stadium in the first place? How can they tear down the old stadium, "the cathedral of baseball" to the Noo York fans.

Fenway Park -- a ballpark, not a stadium - is doing quite well, thank you. Some tasteful additions and general sprucing up will carry the park into the future. It was opened in 1912. It may be small, but those 34,000-plus seats are filled for just about every game.

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The Hour's Frank Fay gave us his inimitable view of the 90th birthday party for columnist Andy Rooney, Norwalk resident (the "village" of Rowayton, actually).

Going through some old stuff on my desk, I came across Andy's column, the first one he had written since The Hour had subscribed to it. In it he was self-deprecating as he pondered how his neighbors would view him, not as a wise oracle of the world, but as the klutz who lived next door.

After ruminating about it for several paragraphs, he closed with a comment about his hometown paper picking up his column -- "It's about time!"

John P. Reilly is editor emeritus of The Hour.