JammieWearingFool helps us get at the most telling aspect of the John Kerry boat-berthing/tax-dodging story:
The fallout continues for the laughingstock John Kerry and his woes over the good ship SS 1040. Or maybe to use his own words we should call it the Botched Joke. Ironically by running to his favorite newspaper to try and control the damage he’s just kept the story alive.
(H/t Instapundit.) Emphasis added.
And the last thing he wants to do is keep this story alive. Other bloggers and pundits have focused on the hypocrisy angle: while the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee grandstanded about corporations who seek tax shelters abroad, he sought one in a state bordering the one he represents in the Senate.
What JWF gets at is that the last thing any rich politician wants to do: draw attention to his own luxury purchases — particularly in these tough economic times. Think about this for a moment, many men and women dream of owning their own boat to take to a nearby body of water for weekend and holiday recreation. They work hard to scrape up enough money to buy a decent boat that costs less than one-tenth (if that) of what Kerry would have owed in taxes on his new yacht had he berthed it in his home state.
Let me repeat: many Americans dream of owning a boat worth less than one-tenth of the state taxes Kerry attempted to dodge on his new yacht.
Not just that, he had had the yacht built abroad while many Americans, including presumably many boat builders, are out of work. If he were up for reelection this fall, he’d be a goner.
One final note: can you imagine the hullabaloo if this were a story about a Republican? Or if, say, a Republican former president spent a couple of million bucks on his daughter’s wedding?
Someone needs to check a cemetery in France. Is Marie Antoinette’s corpse spinning outta the grave?
You have to grant the Clintons this: at least with Chelsea’s wedding, their millions were spent in the US and they weren’t dodging taxes they’re anxious to impose on the rest of us.
Kerry is a jerk – as are a lot of the politicians that come out of Massachusetts. What does that say about the citizenry of that state?
I couldn’t even afford a pirogue. Even though a boat is not real high on my list, I suppose it would be nice to have one.
And that’s the thing I couldn’t understand about the lib’s 2004 Kerry wet dream. This clown drips with rich, elitist snobbery. He is what they claim to hate.
Yeah, but TGC, he’s also what the Democrats ARE, by and large. Republicans would be wise to remind voters that the Democrats are the party of the super-wealthy as well as the party of the union bosses and various interest groups who are, by and large, kept down by the Democrats’ policies. Republicans ought to make it clear that they are the party of the middle class, of entrepreneurs and small business people.
It’s always the same. EVERYBODY ELSE is rich and greedy. EVERYBODY ELSE are racist bigots. EVERYBODY ElSE is homophobic. EVERYBODY ELSE except the rich, greedy, racist homophobes that make their panties damp.
The state sales tax bill was $437,500 and the annual excise tax will be around $70,000. I’m not sure your comparison really resonates because most people would probably never consider spending $50k on a boat.
A more apt example might be the annual portion of Kerry’s tax bill for his boat is 40% higher than the national household average income. After taxes, the average American family would have to spend every penny they make for 2 years to pay what Kerry will have his accountant write a check for every year just to dock in Mass.
Kerry’s mamma was a Forbes complete with deep pockets, family pedigree and a determination to see John through prep school and Harvard. Before he left to be a war hero, he married the Thorne money which owned Hilton Head and had lots of other loose change. Then, John tired of the Thorne clan and years later had the Catholic Church whip up a Massachusetts Politician Annulment Special. Meanwhile, Kerry went after the Gilbey’s Gin heiress. However, Hines money became available and it was significantly larger than any of his previous financial conquests.
Mrs. Heinz/Kerry agitated for the annulment to be sure John had a clear gigolo provenance which would not muddy their record for a top suite of clouds on High Street in a gated community in Heaven.
AndyN, perhaps, then I should replace “one-tenth” in the title and text with “one-twentieth.”
Last night, I googled the prices of speed boats and found many fine-looking vessels in the 20 – 50,000 range and, well, one tenth is such a nice figure.
🙂
Charlie Rangel crook. Maxine Waters crook. John Conyers crook. Al Gore creep and sexual predator. John Edwards creep and well…
John Kerry crook. Geithner tax dodge crook, white…not prosecuted. Sebielus tax dodge crook, white, not prosecuted. Bill Richardson crook, hispanic, not prosecuted. What am I missing here.
Oh for those who went to public schools, all of the above are liberal socialist Democrats.
Gene, you could add the Chicago Slumlord Millionaires.
You can’t build a seaworthy boat out of Polish cheese’n’potato dumplings, lamebrain.
Kidding, of course. I’m just delighted to see the word “pirogue,” which I normally associate with the song “Jambalaya”:
Goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh,
Me gotta go pole de pirogue down da bayou!
Apparently “pirogue” is from Spanish piragua, which in turn came from an indigenous Caribbean word for a dugout boat, and was possibly influenced by a folk-etymology association with para agua.
And let us all thank Throbert for showing us how to kill a thread in one sentence. 😛
Just kidding, my friend….I’m a bit of an etymologist myself.
Technically, the money is not his; it belongs to Teresa Heinz who became a billionaire after she married into money. Kerry left his former wife–a millionaire–for a billionaire, for, more or less, political reasons. Teresa has deep pockets & gives generously to her husband, John Kerry. He married her since he was almost broke & needed her money to keep his MA Senate seat. Was it worth the price? I don’t think so. Kerry sold his soul a long time ago long before he married the Heinz woman.
I’d like to be.
Anyway, I could have sworn it was spelled pireaux until I decided to double check.
Now, he could have been a hero and publicly given the contract to a Massachusetts yard…but he’s only have gotten a boat one-half the size due to the higher labor and tax costs. And the blogosphere would still have jumped all over him for mere-posturing… It was a lose-lose from the very beginning.
He made two mistakes;
1. He should have simply stated that it was registered in Bristol, RI for tax and legal liability reasons. Many large yachts, especially those chartered-out when their owners aren’t using them are registered in RI or Wilmington, Del. And if the charters are for international waters like the Bahamas or the Caribbean this is particularity important. One reasons so many charter yachts are registered out of St George, Bermuda and Freeport in the Bahamas.
2. He should not have just rolled-over and volunteered to pay the taxes. Evading taxes is illegal, avoiding taxes is our right and responsibility as American citizens.
Ted B, Senator John Kerry got nailed for his blatant hypocrisy given Kerry is a long established tax & spend liberal Democrat. Taxes for thee, but not for me really made an already angry populace more mad. Thanks to Obama, the nation is a tinderbox as it is just waiting to politically explode.
Sadly, I don’t think you’re right about him being a goner.
Unfortunately, I think we’re going to have the same scenario we had with Ted. Not one person I ever asked voted for him, but he continued to be elected.