Living Large on the Taxpayers' Dimes

The stories about deadbeat Rep. Laura Richardson of Long Beach just keep getting worse.

The new Congresswoman has the single most expensive taxpayer-paid car lease in the entire U.S. Congress.

To its credit, an L.A. Times blog asks: "Would you pay $1,300/mo. to lease a car? You already do," and notes that taxpayers are footing the bill.

This is the same woman who used her Long Beach City Council car for thousands of miles of personal use, and the city has thus far not called her to account. The same woman who defaulted on three mortgages. The same woman who refused to pay printing and mechanic's bills until they were publicized in newspaper articles.

And yet the citizens of Long Beach just voted to give her the Democratic nomination to return to Congress, and she will run unopposed in the November election...and based on her history, she'll keep milking all of us -- not just the Long Beach citizens she represents -- to pay for the lifestyle to which she'd like to become accustomed.

Previously: May 28 and June 7, 2008.