live-- Inside... 
Henry Waxman's nose!
Never forget to practice... 
safe sex!
Posted on 07/23/2008 7:48:28 PM PDT by Libloather
Bill O'Reilly Nails Robert Wexler
Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:11:12 PM
Bill O'Reilly did a good number on "local" Congressman Robert Wexler tonight.
And I think Wexler is in a bit of trouble.
You see, the longtime Democratic rep says he lives in Delray Beach and he's required to maintain a residence in his district. But he really lives in Potomac MD. The house in Delray that he calls his "offical residence" is owned by Lawrence and Roslyn Cohen, the parents of Wexler's wife, Laurie. And it's in a restricted over-55 community, which makes it impossible for Wexler and and his three children to reside there.
"U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Delray Beach)"? I think not.
Wexler's Republican opponent, Edward Lynch, dug this stuff up and fed it to Fox News. O'Reilly ate it up.
A Fox News producer named Griff Jenkins caught up with Wexler in the front yard of his home in Potomac. When Jenkins walked up on his driveway, Wexler -- looking 100 percent the goofy suburban dad in a green hat, green t-shirt, and shorts -- didn't even wait for a question.
"No, I'm not doing this," Wexler said. "If you want to call my office, that's fine, I gotta drive my daughter to work."
Jenkins, like any good reporter, kept charging, asking Wexler by the congressman's silver Volvo SUV if his residency was in Delray.
"That's correct, that's my residence," he said.
Jenkins noted that it belonged to Wexler's in-laws.
"Is that true? You live with your mother-in-law?" Jenkins asked with a straight face.
That's when the fire-breathing liberal got what football man Bill Curry likes to call the "brook trout stare." His eyes went blank and you could practically hear his brain leaking out of his head.
"Uh, the, mm ..."
The stammering only lasted a second or two, but it seemed like an hour in at the DMV.
"My in-laws own that house, that's correct," he finally said.
"So you live with your mother-in-law?"
"My in-laws own that house, yes, that's my official residence."
To the videotape:
You might think this seems a small matter and you might not like the vigor with which O'Reilly goes after Wexler (fresh liberal meat, you know). But it's about more than partisan politics or even the fact that Wexler hasn't lived in his district for ten years and lists a sham residence in official papers. Put bluntly, this is a sleazy and unethical move by Wexler and O'Reilly and the Wall Street Journal's John Fund touch on the reasons why. For one, he gets a housing deduction from Congress to help him maintain two residences. Unless, he's paying Mrs. Cohen rent when he sleeps on the pull-out, he's just pocketing that little federal benefit.
Another thing is that he might be using the sham Delray house for tax purposes -- as in, to not pay them. Florida doesn't have a state income tax, Maryland does. That means his little deceit might be bringing him more than a little coin. It's not proven, but his cars are, weirdly, registered in Florida and it deserves to be looked into.
Basically, this could be tantamount to fraud and it could actually have some legs, though I seriously doubt we'll see any criminal charges and I'm quite certain his loyal voters will quickly forgive him. He's good ol' Bobby Wexler, after all.
But good on Lynch for digging it up. So how did he do it? Well, Wexler can blame his own big mouth. Or, more specifically, his typing fingers. From Lynch's press release:
This revelation became known after reading Congressman Wexler’s book, “Fire Breathing Liberal.” On P. 52 he states, “While many members don’t bring their families with them to Washington, choosing instead to fly home each weekend, Laurie and I decided it would work best for our family if our three young children attended school in the Washington area.” It was that statement the caused this candidate to look further into Rep. Wexler’s past.
That's how he found a damn good story, though you wouldn't really have known it if you read the story about it in the Palm Beach Post this morning. Rather than treat it like a serious local political story, the Post basically wrote a preview of O'Reilly's show and brought up none of the more pertinent problems regarding Wexler's action. Headlined "Wexler residency dispute enters Fox's 'No Spin Zone'," it basically nullified itself as news and handed Fox the real scoop. It also reminded me of how chummy the Post has historically been with its long-time congressmen. Remember Mark Foley? The newspaper treated him like a near-deity until he finally went down in flames over the page scandal.
This isn't anywhere near a Foley-caliber story (even if O'Reilly treats it as one to push his famously non-existent political agenda). But it definitely deserves serious local coverage.
I’d love to see this play out - the military has had a bunch of people in neighboring Virginia buy a house while assigned to the Pentagon, then move 3 or 4 times at the behest of the service, then end up retiring in Virginia - which then proceeded to serve them with 12-20 years of delinquent income tax notices as “residents”, though they never registered to vote or anything else in VA and only bought the house because they were assigned to the Pentagon.
Colonel, USAFR
I’m prety sure Wexler was the guy doing blow off a hooker’s chest a few years back... I saw something about it on the news...
And please don’t tell me it was a joke. I know that...
I can’t remember what Florida wanted to give me a resident DL. I had just moved here and I don’t remember what I used to get the license. I was sharing an apartment so the lease, utilities, etc. were not in my name. My cell phone was a prepay. I think I showed a birth certificate, social security card, and my old DL, but I don’t think they asked for anything that documented the address.
I don’t care much for O’Reilly, but this story is top shelf. Who recalls the brouhaha over Anne Coulter?
I should add, if you don’t already know, that The New Times is a free distribution paper and leans very far to the left. Very interesting.
I live in Maryland. I believe that if an out of state car stays more than thirty days in Maryland they must be re-registered in Maryland; of course the registrataion fee must be payed and I believe a state tax on the vehicle(s) is also due. I'm sure this can be confirmed by checking it out at the Maryland State gov. website.
Also I believe that if you reside in the state for six months or more you are considered a state resident and subject to state income tax. I know the state does have a partial residency portion on the state income tax forms; if you stay six months or longer, you pay income tax.
Your residence for registering to vote is where your mind wants it to be. You only need an address to receive mail in a county to register to vote and that is your residence. In other words, you can own as many houses, rent as many apartments, stay with any number of friends in as many counties/states as you want; you deicde which of those places will be your residence and register to vote there. Tax status means nothing, homesteading a place means nothing; your choice of residence is your own to make.
We went through this with 8,000 seniors who live in their mobile homes and travel the country. They chose Polk County in Texas to register as they are members of a travel group there but they may not go there for years or never. Their mail is forwarded by their travel group. Democrats tried to keep these people from voting and we went to court with them for months (the majority were Republicans which is why Democrats tried to dump them). The voter registration laws were hammered to death but still was upheld to mean your residence is where you say it is as long as mail can reach you from that area.
We have a Democrat Texas state representative who rents an apartment where he registers to vote and represents that area but his house is in another county which is in a district he doesn’t represent. He is completely legal.
Sometimes Bill O’Reilly doesn’t check deep enough before he spouts off.
Representative Wexler pointed out that, because of the Bush regime economic failures, he and his family are forced to live with their parents. “We would like to have a home of our own, but the Bush administration has been taking money from hard working families like us to give tax breaks to their rich buddies in the oil business like Halliburton.”
Wexler would probably say that the Supreme Court gave the election to Bush, but the day after the election he was on one of the morning talk shows saying that a local judge has the authority and should decide who wins the vote there.
He should be thrown off the ballot NOW. Send the lawyers ASAP.
No!~’,)($#@%^&&**}
LoL!
That’s not the case when determining where one can vote as a resident. That restriction causes Illinois college students to need to vote back in their hometowns.
Sen. Tom Harkin did much the same thing for years. His residence was listed as a duplex. One day his opponent decided to take a camera and knock on the door. A man answered and was asked if Harkin lived there. The man replied that Harkin maintained a bedroom there.
Harkin has a wife and two kids. Imagine his family staying with him in his bedroom? Every year at Christmas the Des Moines Register would show a picture of Harkin and his family boarding a plane in DC bound for his beach front home in the Bahamas. His permanent residence is in West Virginia.
Finally after this became an issue he purchased a home in Iowa. He still only comes back to Iowa about two times a year.
live-- Inside... Henry Waxman's nose!
Never forget to practice... safe sex!
You are nuts if you think congressional republicans have the moxie to go after the dirtbag Wexler.
Were he a conservative Republican the dems would insist on an ethics investigation.
Hint...hint...hint...for a Md. Freeper.
It will come to nothing.
The Democrat state attorney is already on public record before the media cameras as saying that Wexler’s INTENT is within the law and that nothing at all will be done here.
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