Rich Liberals -- in Florida

A few decades back, an assertedly conservative columnist – fond of opining that Americans were undertaxed (a curious philosophy for a conservative – got snagged in a tax shelter scam. I remember chuckling; Americans might be undertaxed, but he wasn’t.

Americans, a forgiving lot, will excuse just about any sin, save hypocrisy. Such is the reason sex scandals tend to hurt conservatives more than liberals (Eliot Spitzer to the contrary notwithstanding). The electorate expects no better of the Bill Clintons; it expects those who assert fealty to "traditional values" to adhere to them personally.

Liberals often adopt the do-as-I-say philosophy, acting unapologetic when caught in the flagrant contradiction. Recall Carl Rowan, liberal scribe extraordinaire, scourge of the NRA, supporter of just about every gun restriction ever conceived. But when confronted by an intruder in his Washington, DC, home, guess who blazed away with an illegal pistol? Unrepentant, he asserted that as long as the criminals had guns, he reserved that right for himself. The news reports never indicated whether he paid his NRA membership, having just made their case.

Now, consider the observation by OpinionJournal.com today. It seems that liberal lion Howard Metzenbaum, erstwhile Senator from the great state of Ohio, who died in March, at the age of 90.

In Florida.

Curious, that, no? A doctrinaire lefitst, Metzenbaum never met the tax he didn’t love – when, apparently, other people paid them. But facing Ohio’s almost-New-Jerseyish 7% income tax, and knowing that, approaching 90, that he would shortly go to his reward – thereby subjecting his heirs to Ohio’s 7% death tax – he suddenly discovered the merits of a jurisdiction without either an income tax or a death tax. For a man of his wealth, his savings while alive, and his family’s savings upon his death, probably totaled many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or more.

But, of course, the tax benefits to a man of his station must be a complete coincidence. We all know that people don’t move from one state to another based upon something as trivial as tax rates. We have Jon Shure’s word on it, and Jon Shure is an honorable man.

That same publication noted, earlier this week, that erstwhile Maryland Governor Ehrlich has taken to calling PA "North Maryland", due to the ever burgeoning exodus of MD resident’s fleeing that state’s increasingly confiscatory taxes. Given PA’s long time status as "West New Jersey" – hosting hundreds of thousands of NJ expats similarly seeking a modicum of tax sanity unavailable in their former home – one wonders: will PA become increasingly Red, as Maryland and New Jersey increasing hemorrhage shed taxaphobic residents?

Or will the "progressives" – who continue to strive to turn NJ (and MD) into socialist paradises, in which only rich liberals, governmental employees, and the poor can afford to live – eventually awaken to the fact that the laws of economics are not subject to political repeal?

Nah.