Taxology

Oakland mayor and Progressive "lion" Ron Dellums - actually, "panther" might be appropriate - is in trouble with the tax man. God forbid he pay the taxes he insists on imposing on the rest of us: Mayor Dellums, wife Owe $239K in Back Taxes

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife failed to pay more than $239,000 in taxes over a three-year period, public records show.

Dellums, 73, and his wife, Cynthia, 55, who acts as his unpaid adviser, are named in a lien issued by the Internal Revenue Service and filed with the Alameda County recorder's office Oct. 14.

The lien says the couple failed to pay $124,198 in federal income taxes in 2005, $66,554 in 2006 and $48,246 in 2007, the year Dellums took office as mayor.

The tax lien was imposed on all the couple's personal property, meaning they cannot pocket proceeds from any transactions without first paying off the IRS.

The unpaid taxes date back to when Dellums was operating a lobbying firm in DC after he retired from Congress. His clients were an eclectic bunch:

In 2005, the first year the couple allegedly failed to pay their full taxes, Ron Dellums headed a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm, Dellums and Associates. It earned $90,000 in lobbying income, $70,000 from Rolls-Royce North America and $20,000 from AIDS Healthcare Foundation, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.

In 2006, the lobbying firm received $100,000 from Verizon Communications, $120,000 from the Rolls-Royce group and $20,000 from the AIDS foundation.

Rolls Royce? I guess they're not kidding about limousine liberalism.

I don't really care if Dellums was living the high life. What I get tired of is the endless hagiography about guys like him; that he's the champion of the poor, the powerless, etc. Dellums is the progressive's progressive - a Marxist in all but name, who is hostile to American values and interests; a real Castro snuggler. Yet, here he is with a bigger home than those of the "right wing" Tea Partiers he no doubt despises, along with a tax lien commensurate with someone living beyond his means. Someone please call when progressives get tired of lionizing guys like this.