According to Newsweek magazine, the McCains failed to pay property taxes on a condo they own in La Jolla, California for four years. Notified of this by Newsweek, the McCains paid (yesterday) for the last four years, but are still late in their payments for this year.
UPDATE: The location of the condo in question was posted to The Jed Report. From there, it is a simple exercise to find the building, and then look it up on Zillow. Here it is. Zillow lists the property taxes for 2007 as $11,229 — note that this is a unit in the same complex, and may not be the same unit owned by the McCains. But the Newsweek article says that the total unpaid taxes for the last four years are $6,744.42, with another $1,742 owed for 2008. Am I missing something? Why are the McCains paying around 15% of normal taxes?
UPDATE2: As people have pointed out, due to Proposition 13, property taxes in California are based on the purchase price of the property, not the current value. The McCains simply must have purchased the condo from the Spanish before California became part of the USA. But seriously, does someone know the exact unit owned by the McCains, so we can look up its purchase date and price?
The McCain campaign (and much of the mainstream media) keeps trying to keep alive the myth of McCain the Maverick, but it is clearly on life support, and getting a bit crazy. In a conference call today, a McCain spokeswoman tried to compare McCain’s bipartisan cred with Obama’s, using the example of immigration reform:
It’s fairly significant that Senator McCain worked on the immigration reform legislation while he was pursing the nomination of his party. [He] reached across the aisle despite a heated primary campaign.
There has never been a time when Barack Obama has bucked the party line to lead on an issue of national importance.
I don’t get it. I understand why McCain would want to claim that he is different than President Bush and his disastrous Republican policies, but attacking Obama because he hasn’t distanced himself from the Democrats? Who cares?
Besides, it’s obviously false — Obama spoke out against the war in Iraq when Democrats were falling over themselves to support Bush’s position. To me, that’s bucking the party line of both parties on an “issue of national importance”. And you know, Obama was right.
What about term limits? Why those pesky things are man’s law, not god’s.
The God who parted the Red Sea is surely not worried about so-called “term limits”. When you vote your faith you let Almighty God take care of the details.
What makes me suspect it is a hoax are the bumper stickers, which they are selling for $8 a pop, with catchy slogans like
“The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals have the right to carry guns … When the decision was read, it created pandemonium in the court. Justice Scalia had to fire two warning shots to settle people down. And then at the White House, just for fun, Dick Cheney went out on the lawn and peppered a buddy with some birdshot.” –David Letterman
“Here’s good news — Bill Clinton will be out on the campaign trail getting people to vote for Obama. Isn’t that what he was doing for Hillary? But Bill Clinton is campaigning for Obama. President Bush is campaigning for McCain. And I’m thinking, wow, this could really be the year for Ralph Nader.” -David Letterman
“The latest Bloomberg poll shows Obama has a 15-point lead over John McCain. That’s a big lead. He leads in men and in women and with young people, minorities. I think the only place that McCain is beating Obama is in calcium deposits right now.” -Jimmy Kimmel
“The big story out there continues to be the high cost of gasoline. Four bucks a gallon. I have stopped traveling anywhere that is not downhill. Luckily, John McCain has the solution: Fabulous prizes! Who says McCain’s campaign has no new ideas? They have the new idea of offering millions of dollars to people who actually have ideas. It’s just the latest example of John McCain’s brave fight to keep Americans awake while he talks” -Stephen Colbert
“Hillary Clinton is out campaigning with Barack Obama. She says if it goes well, she’ll consider making him as her running mate.” -David Letterman
“Hey, there was an interesting study released today which says that people who live here in the state of California are less convinced that there is a God than the people of any other state in the country. On an unrelated note, more than 800 wildfires here in California are currently burning out of control.” -Jimmy Kimmel
“Arnold Schwarzenegger met John McCain today. And it was a very awkward moment when they shook hands because McCain’s hand broke off.” -Craig Ferguson
The Republicans just reintroduced an amendment to the US Constitution that prohibits gay marriage. This amendment has no chance of passage — the main purpose of reintroducing it is to stir up the conservative base for the upcoming elections.
But the ironic (and fun) part is looking at the list of 10 original sponsors, where you find Senators Larry “wide stance” Craig (who was arrested for soliciting gay sex in an airport restroom), and Senator David “just a massage” Vitter (who hired prostitutes).
These are the people who are trying to uphold the sanctity of marriage?
Who says that CSPAN isn’t the new comedy channel? During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Steve Cohen tried to get Cheney’s chief of staff to clarify to which branch of the government the Vice President belongs:
John McCain’s a maverick. He’s fought for a bipartisan fashion. I think that the biggest thing I’ve seen from Barack Obama is a willingness, aggressiveness, to talk bipartisan and yet to vote the hard left — most liberal member of the United States Senate.
The Obama campaign rapid-response team quickly responded with an email listing the projects on which Obama worked with Brownback, including bills that Obama co-sponsored with Brownback.
As CQ Politics notes, there is a valuable lesson here: Before you say Barack Obama never worked across the aisle, make sure he never worked with, for example, you.
