Subscriber Comments for
Published report alleges possible ethics violation by Rep. C...

Most recent Comments first | (reverse order)

COMMENT 304723	2012-08-04 10:46 AM
Similarly, it's disingenuous to pretend that $8k that's been paid to the IRS is the same as $4.2 million that hasn't.
COMMENT 304703	2012-08-04 10:23 AM
You're right, I can't think of anyone who outright defends it. But plenty of folks like to pretend like the spending excesses of 2001-2008 didn't exist, so it helps to remind people. I personally don't belong to any political party, I just feel that it's disingenuous to imply that one party is "right" and one party is "wrong" when both are guilty of many of the same things.
COMMENT 304693	2012-08-04 10:00 AM
Can't think of a single person who defends the prior Republican spending frenzies, Sy. You need to start thinking post-partisan and get with the program instead of perpetuating tiresome divisiveness. Sigh.
COMMENT 304606	2012-08-04 06:06 AM
Forbes numbers are bogus - Dems have not had a budget in 2 years -
COMMENT 304586P	2012-08-03 11:06 PM
30473 - Facts from Forbes
COMMENT 304562	2012-08-03 07:47 PM
Nor is it for conservatives, 373, but that doesn't stop them from doing the same thing. :)
COMMENT 304558	2012-08-03 07:08 PM
She deposited 48 rent checks totaling over $50,000 and just "forgot" to claim the income?
COMMENT 304693	2012-08-03 07:07 PM
Lois Capps paid no price for her "anti-war vote". It was sure to pass and the DemParty handlers allowed a few errant votes to take place, if it played well with their troops back home. No, the money spent on the Iraq war could not have been used for "something else" unless the people voted for it. It wasn't just laying around to be used on anything. It belonged to the taxpayers and they voted to use/waste it on the Iraq War in the post 911 trauma because they wanted to blame and fix something. It was a stupid move, but it did have bi-partisan support. Lois's vote against it was a weenie vote - it didn't matter. It was not an act of courage. It did not go against her party. It was a safe pass to make sure she was still around to keep voting lock-step with the Dem Party bosses from that point forward. BTW: The government is not just one giant piggy bank or ATM for liberals to spend on anything they want.
COMMENT 304499	2012-08-03 04:44 PM
Lois Capps, I forgive you for this mistake. We need you in office as we overhaul health care. You're not practicing as a nurse anymore, but our district and our nation needs your good care. Hang in there.
COMMENT 304487	2012-08-03 04:02 PM
Wait, isn't Abel pro-choice?
COMMENT 304693	2012-08-03 02:55 PM
Intentionally renting out an illegal second unit in a single family zoned neighborhood smacks of arrogance and indifference to her own constituents who are asked to abide by the same zoning regulations. No illegal second units allowed typically in this part of town. But maybe there was a legal exception at her address. Lois may have stepped into this one big time if she knew this was illegal, yet to did it anyway. But naturally, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Stay tuned to learn which might have been the greater crime: running an illegal rental, or withholding income from IRS. Or both? Lois, I think you are tired and need to come home.
COMMENT 304473P	2012-08-03 02:55 PM
We would be very blessed as a country to have people like Lois Capps as politicians. No wonder people don't want to run for office.
COMMENT 304465	2012-08-03 02:35 PM
Hey 456, do 160 sponsored bills (you'll have to remove the line break tag, Edhat inserts them when URLs wrap for some reason) and missing only 2% of votes (under the Congressional average of 2.4%) over a 14 year period not count as actually doing anything? What do you expect Representatives to do but propose and vote on bills? That's how legislation works. I can understand your frustration or anger at her breaking her one-term pledge, but please. Exercise your brain and do a little bit of research before you attack someone's work ethic. And, before you start, voting ideologically with one's party doesn't mean they don't have a work ethic or are some sort of puppet. Otherwise the same thing would apply to a vast majority of Representatives and Senators of both parties.
COMMENT 304461	2012-08-03 02:29 PM
Yes, bravo, Ms. Capps, for catching your error and correcting it. AFTER FOUR YEARS. I'm disappointed in the lot of you who are excusing this, then point the finger at Maldonado and say "look how much worse he is". She's no better than he is. Business as usual, folks.
COMMENT 304460	2012-08-03 02:25 PM
didn't know so many Maldonado lovers read EdHat! Really, do you think that a woman that spends most of her time in Washington and flies home almost every weekend is personally collecting rent checks and depositing them? That is almost certainly left up to her bookkeeper or accountant. And if renting out a room is illegal, 1/2 of Santa Barbara would be paying fines! Lois Capps is one of the few people in Congress that refused to give Bush the right to invade Iraq. For that courageous act, I will vote for her as long as she runs, for any office whatsoever. If we had a whole Congress of Lois Capps, I bet we wouldn't be wasting money in stupid wars, and could use the savings to give everyone universal healthcare!
COMMENT 304456	2012-08-03 02:08 PM
Hard to imagine she did anything unethical in as much as she has never DONE much of anything at all. It must be strictly something in her private life not in her "nonexistent public servant tenure"! It is amazing how her pledge to only do one full term, after the partial term she inherited from her deceased husband was over, disappeared into thin air (or hot air as politics goes). Undoubtedly her willingness to be a puppet to the democrats in Congress and their agenda, convinced them to urge her to keep running. As long as the voters in this District didn't care they had an empty dress for a representative taking up space in the House of Representatives why rock the boat and lose another guaranteed vote
COMMENT 304438	2012-08-03 01:31 PM
Well, people who don't work still pay taxes. Just not income tax. Income tax isn't the only tax.
COMMENT 304436	2012-08-03 01:25 PM
That tax code ought to be re-vamped. Taxes based on income is so archaic. If you don't work, you don't pay taxes? Everyone ought to pay something. Everyone. A lot of people have big money but it's unverifiable income and pay nothing in taxes.
COMMENT 304431	2012-08-03 12:46 PM
SY: Yes. Many Maldonado supporters are the very same people who want to take away womens' right to reproductive healthcare, reproductive choice, and equal pay. So yes, these are people who have issues with women, and their animosity is quite obvious. The repeated use of terms like "old" and "forgetful" just reinforce the sexist attitudes that women over a certain age are "useless", while men of the same age are "wise" and "powerful" (she's two years younger than Antonin Scalia).
COMMENT 304400	2012-08-03 11:19 AM
$8,000 versus $4,000,000 is a pretty big difference. I'm not saying that Capps' violation should be excused because the amount is smaller, but to criticize someone who voluntarily paid the back taxes and admitted fault while another individual sits around doing battle over five hundred times the amount... I dunno. No one is squeaky clean, it doesn't exist. But there's some animosity surrounding Capps that just doesn't make sense to me. Is it because she's a woman? I wonder.
COMMENT 304606	2012-08-03 11:15 AM
Maldonado's tax trouble are based on a family business that has a CPA firm doing the books and filing the tax's - His brother and father run the business - As a small business owner of 25 years I have had to fight for the correct billing from the IRS. Lois got checks every month in exchange for a room in a neighborhood that are all single family dwellings. Unless her handlers rented the room and got the money and hid it from her. Or maybe the renter mailed the checks to her CPA ? It all sounds fishy.
COMMENT 304386	2012-08-03 10:46 AM
The headline is typical propaganda - manufacturing an accusation when no offense has been committed. The fact that Capps found the error and corrected it on her own volition, appears to be an *example* of ethics, not a "violation" as so misrepresentatively reported.
COMMENT 304379	2012-08-03 10:17 AM
Capps failed the ethics test when she ran for election on the PROMISE that she would not seek re-election. Then got the taste of power and decided to run again. Liar. How can a elected official making key decisions for our district not understand the need to report income? Either she is stupid or she was trying to cheat the system. Cheater.
COMMENT 304693	2012-08-03 10:03 AM
Is Capps renting out an illegal second unit, which is why she "failed" to report this income?
COMMENT 304370	2012-08-03 09:56 AM
Absolutely agree with 350. I have to add that I am truly disappointed in Lois Capps. She has turned into another regular old politician. I remember when she used to say that she supported term limits and well, look at her now.... Yeah, nobody here is saint. BUT our leaders definitely should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us. That's why they are our leaders.
COMMENT 304367	2012-08-03 09:49 AM
@304299 Your claim is slanderous; Capps did catch it, no one else did ... as opposed to Abel Maldonado, who is as sleazy as they come and throwing stones from a glass house.
COMMENT 304350	2012-08-03 09:03 AM
I think the real losers here are the voters of District 24 who have the choice between a tax cheat on the left, and a tax cheat on the right. It's too bad we're now forced to choose between 2 evils in the top 2 system (which Abel helped to pass). Sorry third parties, you are now officially shut out in CA thanks to our new "open primaries." We should at least have a "none of the above" designation when both candidates are terrible.
COMMENT 304345	2012-08-03 08:55 AM
Caught the problem? Oversight? Slip of the memory? The sad part of all of this is even when someone you like messes up, you cover for them. A slip of your memory is leaving your car keys behind... Once. Not 48 consecutive times. What we have here is another example of outright lies to cover up incompetence promoting outright tax evasion. Everyone should do the same when their faux leaders encourage it. Did I say leader? Only when caught should any of us admit guilt. Cut in lines at the movies. Cut off cars on the street. J-walk. Just say "Oh it was an oversight" when you get busted. I'm sure the cops will understand.
COMMENT 304340	2012-08-03 08:46 AM
If her memory is really that bad she isn't the right person to be representing us. That is dangerous.
COMMENT 304335P	2012-08-03 08:35 AM
I agree with 273P!!
COMMENT 304331P	2012-08-03 08:33 AM
Green baloney??
COMMENT 304322	2012-08-03 08:18 AM
Seems like a slip of the memory. We all do it sometimes. What most of us don't do is actively seek to evade more than $4 million in taxes, as Abel Maldonado has done. The man belongs in an 8' x 8' prison cell, wearing Sheriff Joe's pink underwear and eating green baloney sandwiches.
COMMENT 304319P	2012-08-03 08:10 AM
Can you imagine poor Lois coming home one night only to find a stranger living in her studio? What a fright that must have been. Then the government says that she owes money because of that? Oh, wait. You say that she cashed the rent check from this person every month? Poor dear. Must have a faulty memory also...
COMMENT 304305P	2012-08-03 07:38 AM
Big deal. She fixed it. Move on you Saints.
COMMENT 304299	2012-08-03 07:16 AM
273P - not reporting that income is like "forgetting" to pay your registration & car insurance. It's just doesn't happen accidentally unless you're mentally incapacitated. Also, she didn't catch the problem, someone else caught it and now she's being held accountable. There was really no recourse other than to pay up. That's not ethics, that's simply covering your a...
COMMENT 304294	2012-08-03 07:06 AM
Amazes me that politicians, on both sides, don't know you are supposed to pay taxes on income. DUH.
COMMENT 304273P	2012-08-03 04:21 AM
At least Lois caught the problem, reported it, amended her returns and paid all the back tax she owed. She is not trying to hide the mistake, she took full responsibility and corrected it. Sounds damn ethical to me, Abel. BTW Abel, mistakes do happen, it is how one handles them that counts and her handling her's shows strong ethics and accountability in my book.

19% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.

*** One comment was removed from this thread by the Edhat Board Nanny for violating Edhat Comments Board policy. Click Here to see it.

EDHAT COMMENTS POLICY