Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

Senator Claire McCaskill has been so busy promoting oversight and transparency in congressional travel that she forgot to practice it in her own life. Whoops:

Sen. Claire McCaskill is selling the personal plane that has caused her turbulence in recent weeks after POLITICO revealed she used taxpayer money to cover the cost of political travel.

The first-term Democrat said she was very happy she was able to convince her husband to “sell the damn plane.”

And it’s being reported today that the political travel problem wasn’t the full story. She also owes just a little bit in taxes:

In a conference call Monday afternoon, McCaskill revealed that after her own review of the plane’s records, she had not paid personal property taxes on the aircraft over the past four years.

“I have discovered that the personal property taxes on the plane have not been paid. There should have been a reporting to the county of the existence of this plane. There are people I could blame for this, but I know better. I take full responsibility,” McCaskill said to reporters, after revealing she had conducted her own audit of all 89 flights she had taken.

“This was a mistake, It should have been reported in Missouri. It will be paid in Missouri today,” she said.

McCaskill said she would be sending a check for $287,273 to St. Louis County Monday for the back taxes she owed between 2007 and 2010.

If she’d have taken John Kerry’s advice and kept the plane in Rhode Island this kind of thing might have been avoided. Okay, maybe not.

But don’t worry, taxpayers — this kind of thing has only strengthened McCaskill’s resolve to crack down on people like… well, like Claire McCaskill:

McCaskill has even made the unique argument that her own “embarrassing” mistake, as she’s called it, is just another reason to push for more openness in Washington.

If this turns out to be too much of a political embarrassment, McCaskill may leave the Democrats to run for re-election next year with the more populist “Rent on my plane is too damn high” party.

Update: Here’s a Craigslist ad for Air Claire. Heh.

**Written by Doug Powers

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