If you strenuously disapprove of winter and curse the heavens whenever it sleets, then you’ve probably had enough of the cold weather by the time the famous little rat in Punxa-whatever-the-hell-it-is, Pa. comes out of his hole and sees (or doesn’t see) his shadow.

Of course, we’d have a winter to match the economy. Hey what happens when Tim Geithner sees his tax form? Answer: Six more years of recession.

I’ve even advocated the abolishment of the month of February…it’s a short, meaningless month and an insult to our intelligence.

But here’s the good news. We’re past January which means we’re turning the corner on the dark season of ice and crud. I think I even heard  the call of a spring bird today, though it was probably just my imagination.

But we are seeing more sunlight, one of the few good things that can be said about February.

Jerome Thaler, a Yorktown man who keeps meticulous records on Westchester’s temperature, snowfall and precipitation, gives a wonderful summary of what to expect in the way of weather for each month of the year in his book, “Weather History and Climate Guide to the Lower Hudson Valley.” Every month is unique.

I keep a copy of Thaler’s book in my office at The Journal News. It’s the bible of local weather. No kidding.

Here’s the first paragraph from his chapter on February:

“With the arrival of February, one can sense the greater amount of daily light and see the more northerly position of the sunset on the horizon. Sunrise is more than half an hour earlier and sunset one half hour later than in early January. This extra hour of daylight is however, not enough to give us any sense of greater warmth.”

That’s true. It’s still too cold.

Thaler adds: “While the days have gradually become much longer, the bitterness of winer with its attendant ice and snow is still the same.”

Here’s the latest. Tom Daschle has taken himself out of the running.

A good move.

As has been widely reported, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri has proposed a law that would limit executive pay for companies taking federal bailout money to no more than what Barack Obama makes as president—$400,000.

McCasskill ,who called the Wall Street chieftans “idiots” for their greedy ways, says limiting their salaries to the level of the nation’s commander-in-chief is hardly unreasonable.

“It’s eight times the median household income in the United States of America,” she said. “I don’t think that sounds like a bad idea.”

Her use of the president’s pay grade is interesting because it harks back to another depression, The Great Depression, when the salary of the greatest baseball player of all time, Babe Ruth, was compared to the salary of one of the worst presidents of all time, Herbert Hoover.

In 1930, the president’s salary was $75,000.

When somebody questioned how the Great Bambino could make $80,0000, or five grand more than the president, Ruth supposedly replied, “I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.”

It’s hard to see how the likes of say, John Thain, the fallen CEO of Merrill Lynch, could possibly have had a better year than Obama.

Besides, our man Thain from Rye-Harrison, can’t hit a curve.

I don’t see how Tom Daschle’s bid to become secretary of health and human services can survive his puzzling failure to pay $128,000 in  taxes.

That Daschle has long been a liberal Democrat only makes more embarrassing the fact that the money he owed the government was because of the imperial perk of a chauffeured limousine. He can now truly and literally be called a “Limousine Liberal.”

There are basic excuses always given for these kinds of “oversights.” They generally run along the lines of “I didn’t know,” and “Blame my accountant.” Ignorance, of course, is no excuse in a court of law, but the political big shots, who write and enforce the laws, seem to plea ignorance of the law whenever they get caught in a tax mess. The average person in similar circumstances might go to jail, but these guys expect to be both excused and given a top government job to boot.

The amazing thing is how many have been exposed in recent months—Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Tim Geithner, the newly appointed secretary of he treasury and now we learn that another Obama appointee, Nancy Killefer, who was up for deputy director of management at teh Office of of Management and Budget, has a tax problem. At least she had the grace to drop out of the running.

The surrogates who defend guys like Daschle only make it worse. Invariably, they say they’re the best person for the post, whatever it may be, and the American people should overlook their foibles because, you know, try to get somebody better.

That’s not just a bogus argument—there’s always somebody as good, if not better—it’s also an example of moral relativism. It’s OK for them, but not for anybody else, because they are theoretically indispensable.

Hogwash. The old line continues to hold true: The graveyards are filled with indispensable men. Charlie said that. No, not Rangel…Charles de Gaulle.

President Barack Obama should take a page out of de Gaulle and cut Daschle loose.