Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Al Franken - Tax Dodger

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 5/2/08, Vern Green <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> As much as I do not like Franken, I cannot be too hard on him for this,
> honest mistakes do happen.

I am assuming this is an honest mistake. I'm guessing that if he did
end up reporting (and paying taxes) on the income in Minnesota rather
than (e.g.) California, that this is not likely to be a huge issue for
Minnesotans. I would like to think a bigger issue is what uniquely
qualifies a comedian to be a senator, although maybe that's
self-evident...

> The real issue here is that if this was a republican then he would not be
> given this level of understanding from those in the media nor the public in
> general. Mike at least is willing to give Franken a pass for being ignorant,
> but if it were a republican, it would be a different story.

I see your point, but I'm really just not sure. Sen. Vitter in
Louisiana got caught red-handed frequenting prostitutes, and nothing
seems to have come out of that, where we know what happened to
Spitzer... I think there are politicians in both parties who the press
would be completely happy to string up, and others who can get away
with rather a lot.

It wouldn't surprise me to hear that other people got burned by this
kind of thing. Do you remember "Nannygate" back in the early 90s?
Kimba Wood had to step down from being nominated for Attorney General
because she didn't pay Social Security and other payroll taxes for her
nanny. If memory serves, Republicans had a field day with this for
about 2 minutes until people realized that (wait for it...) almost
nobody was doing the nanny payroll tax thing correctly.

> Truth be known, I am completely happy to be held to a higher standard than
> the democrats. Not only does it place us in a higher position than the
> democrats, it clearer emphasizes that we are smarter than your average
> democrat, since it seems that mistakes like this are just "acceptable" for a
> democrat because "he didn't know".

I think you are over-interpreting the situation here. :-)

jking

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