Who Is Luke Brugnara?

He's just an ordinary guy . . . like Tim Geithner, Charles Rangel, Tom Daschle, et al. Like them, Luke, a San Francisco businessman, failed to accurately report and pay income taxes.

But Mr. Brugnara is not Tim Geithner, Charles Rangel, Tom Daschle, or another member of the nation's privileged political elite.

Mr. Geithner was rewarded for his tax foibles by being named Secretary of the Treasury (which, among other things, administers our tax laws).

Mr. Rangel is a member of the U.S. House of Reprehensibles and continues to serve, believe it or not, as chairman of that body's Ways and Means Committee, which writes and oversees the Treasury's administration of our tax laws.

Mr. Daschle, formerly a member of the U.S. Senate and a leader of the Democrats in that body, was nominated by our current president to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. But, because his tax shenanigans came to light at an awkward time, he had to withdraw from consideration for that position and settle for a cushy slot in a big global law firm.

Not having the benefit of membership in the political insiders' club, Mr. Brugnara on Monday, May 24, was sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison and ordered to pay the taxes that he owes by U.S. District Judge William Alsup.

Neither the honorable Judge Alsup (who, not so incidentally, gets his handsome salary from the public treasury, funded with and dependent on tax revenues) nor the San Francisco Chronicle report on Mr. Brugnara's sentencing appear to have noted, let alone to have any qualms about the disparate treatment of tax transgressors or the reason for the disparities.

The episode is but another in a series that prove the truth of the observation voiced years ago by Leona Helmsley that "only the little people pay taxes." Largely because she spoke that truth, Leona Helmsley also was sentenced to prison.