Mark Twain said, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” But in the case of Missouri Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill, her political death is imminent. Or in 2012, whichever comes first.
First, she supported ObamaCare when 71% of her state voted against it. Then she was hit with an ethics complaint after being forced to pay more than $88,000 to the Treasury Department after she used taxpayer funds from her Senate office account to pay for nearly 90 flights on her own airplane. And now she has more ethics problems with the same plane.
Politico has the story of McCaskilll’s rough landing:
In a conference call Monday afternoon, McCaskill revealed that after her own review of the plane’s records, she had not paid personal property taxes on the aircraft over the past four years.
“I have discovered that the personal property taxes on the plane have not been paid. There should have been a reporting to the county of the existence of this plane. There are people I could blame for this, but I know better. I take full responsibility,” McCaskill said to reporters, after revealing she had conducted her own audit of all 89 flights she had taken.
“This was a mistake, It should have been reported in Missouri. It will be paid in Missouri today,” she said.
Yes, of course, it was a mistake. Same kind of mistake Tim Geithner made on his taxes. Same kind of mistake John Kerry made when he saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by docking his new yacht in Rhode Island instead of Massachusetts. Same kind of mistake Charlie Rangel made when he didn’t report income on his Caribbean hideaway.
McCaskill said she would be sending a check for $287,273 to St. Louis County Monday for the back taxes she owed between 2007 and 2010. She also said she had campaign lawyers looking into the flights to determine if any more in-kind contributions needed to be reported to be in compliance.
Asked if this would hurt her reelection bid, McCaskill replied, “I don’t know, I’ve tried to handle this like I handle anything else,” citing her advocacy for transparency and accountability in Congress.
Far be it from us to write any premature political obituaries, but Claire McCaskill’s political career is as dead as Knut the polar bear.
Source: Politico.com
This post was last modified on March 22, 2011
View Comments (13)
Enjoy the unemployment lines Claire since your party of choice, The Food Stamp Party will now support you while you draw unemployment like the rest of us poor suckers!
Hey... She's a liberal democrat... Doesn't that give her a pass? Only Republicans must be required to obey the Laws. Just look at obuma.. He's stepping all over the Constitution, ignoring the People and praising those Nations that hate the USA.
I know, I know, I keep harping on this, but yet another publicity gold mine dropped in the lap of the RNC and what will happen? Nada. I guess I just like pissing into the wind.
Most members of the RNC can't afford to raise too much of a stink, they might piss off someone and get their private records checked.
A politician is a politician and whether they have a D or R after their name dosen't mean much anymore. 80% of them are lying, theiving, sorry sons of bitches. The other 20% are lying, theiving, sorry sons of bitches in training.
My definition of a politician is that they are lawyers that have gone bad.
Copy that!
Pay your tax bill. Taxes are not just for your constituents. Not only that you used OUR money to pay for you plane that you own. May be the senator was flying her good friend Charlie Rangel down to the Dominican Republic for a weekend jaunt. Then you flew with your friend Lurch from MA to his private yacht.What an indigent woman.
Where is the state tax collections on this and why has she not been charged with ethics violation. That is right, democrats don’t have ethics problems.
No ethics? No problem.
"Far be it from us to write any premature political obituaries, but Claire McCaskill’s political career is as dead as Knut the polar bear."
I have to disagree with you. This woman could fill the plane with school children from her own district and intentionally crashed it into the Missouri State Capitol building and the morons in St. Louis would still re-elect her. She's the Missouri equivelant of Bill Clinton. NOTHING sticks to her!!!
Yeah, if they elected her to begin with, and then re-elect her, this won't mean anything.
Has Captain Hypocrite (aka John Kerry-Heinz) ever paid his $500k in NH taxes he tried to avoid by mooring his 7 million dollar yacht in RI? I'm sure Claire understands the game - just keep putting it off and soon they will forget.
just another hack that will get hers in the coming 2nd american revolution.
Yeah, but Knut was prettier, and his death is a greater loss.