Warren Buffet's taxes are so low because he takes his pay as dividends

It turns out that Warren Buffet only takes a 100,000 dollar salary.  A comparable CEO would be earning millions in salary and cash bonuses every year.  Bravo for him.  Except....if Mr. Buffet is still earning those millions but taking them in tax preferred compensation.  In other words, is Mr. Buffett structuring his compensation to avoid higher taxes even as he calls for higher taxes on those who earn less than him but cannot structure their compensation so?  I'm assuming the IRS has passed on his comp arrangements so they are legit in the narrow legal sense.  But is it honest for him to use his wildly unconventional compensation as the basis to make a dishonest political argument?  Carpe Diem has more here.

Update: Another thought... I think Warren Buffett distorted and misrepresented the tax issue by using himself as an example, implying that his case as a CEO paying a lower tax rate (17.4%) than his secretary was typical, when that is not the case.  Buffett’s case is an extreme outlier and not at all typical of a CEO because: a) Buffett takes only a $100,000 salary, and b) gets about $40 million of income annually from dividends and capital gains taxed at 15%.  

That’s how Buffett reports a 17.4% tax rate, but he never explained in his NY Times article (or elsewhere) that his case is NOT typical for salaried CEOs.  The typical CEO reporting ordinary income of $1 million or more would be paying taxes at a rate of something like 29%, including payroll taxes.  The typical secretary reporting $50,000 of income would be paying something like 11% for income tax, and something like 14% including payroll taxes.