Posted on 05/27/2004 6:10:05 AM PDT by OESY
Presidential Candidate Has Experienced Financial Scrapes, Transient Lifestyle
WASHINGTON -- John Kerry is often attacked by political opponents for being a wealthy, out-of-touch elitist.
But while he is quite wealthy, and has never been without at least a comfortable income and lifestyle, the presumptive Democratic nominee has experienced broader swings between the high life and pedestrian money concerns than the caricature suggests.
Indeed, from about 1984 through 1995, in between his marriages to two wealthy women and during his first years in the Senate, the father of two stretched dollars from paycheck to paycheck and borrowed money to cover tuition payments. He made financial decisions that indicate he was more willing to take financial hits than potentially career-damaging political ones.
During that period, dubbed his "gypsy" years by his current wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Mr. Kerry lived mostly on a government salary. Sometimes he bummed free lodging in Boston to see his daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa.
But some ... have scoffed at the notion that the wealthy senator could understand the concerns of ordinary Americans....
In federal financial-disclosure reports, Mr. Kerry reported $395,338 in taxable income in 2003. His wife, who files separately and has an estimated net worth of $500 million, reported $5.1 million in income....
But her wealth did help the senator secure a $6.4 million loan for his campaign in December, which kept his then-fledgling presidential bid afloat until his surprising victory in the Iowa caucuses in January....
During his "gypsy" years, Mr. Kerry did get caught in a few financial jams. At the outset of his first Senate run in 1984, he invested in an overseas tax shelter. But he abandoned it five months later -- losing about $30,000 -- after his accountant warned it looked shady.
That same year, federal prosecutors investigating a Massachusetts congressman for corruption stumbled onto the fact that Mr. Kerry had been using a rental car for 16 months without making a payment. Claiming a bookkeeping error, Mr. Kerry rushed a $13,600 check to the dealership, avoiding further scrutiny from investigators....
"I was very much leading a life more the way congressmen live than a senator," he recalls. "Every Thursday night, I got on a plane and, boom, went back home. I had this house in Washington and that wasn't where I was spending my time."
...
In 1990, the Senate barred senators from accepting outside speaking fees. Mr. Kerry had often earned an extra $25,000 to $30,000 annually from speeches. He opened several lines of personal credit, some as large as $100,000, at Boston banks. His parents also provided a financial "safety valve" when times got tight, he says.
Mr. Kerry says he doesn't remember how much money he drew down from those lines....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Yeah, like any of us could keep a rental car without making a payment for 16 MONTHS! Two weeks and we'd be served with papers.
In fact, none of us could rent a car without a credit card which the rental company would be charging weekly and in advance.
Looks to me like he just got caught. Interesting how quickly this poor common man managed to cough up $13,000 to quiet it all down.
Makes one wonder how many other sweet deals he had/has going that have never had the light shown on them.
It's always amazed me how many millions congressmen and senators spend to get elected to a job that only pays a hundred thousand dollars or so a year.
Ah yes, the Bob Brest "rental" car controversy.
From www.howiecarr.com, under a picture in the "Kerry Korner" section of his website:
On the right, see Cong. Nicky "Pockets" Mavroules, D-Mass, an ultra-liberal nuclear-freeze proponent who later went to prison for, as the federal indictment put it, "operating his Congressional office as a racketeering enterprise." Among his crimes: receiving free Buicks from a shady dealer in his district named Bob Brest. Another recipient of a free Bob Brest Buick: Sen. John F'in Kerry. He claimed his non-payment was "an oversight" and wrote a check. Unlike Nicky Pockets, Kerry was not indicted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.