Shame on you, Joe. Knollenberg underreports the value of his DC home

Roll Call reports today that Joe Knollenberg has been underreporting the value of his DC home for the last several years. The rule seems pretty clear.

The instruction manual provided by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for filling out financial disclosure forms requires that when a property provides rental income, "the gross value of the entire property should be reported even if only part of the property (e.g. the basement of a residence) is used for rental purposes.

From Roll Call:

Since 2003, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) has underreported the value of his Capitol Hill townhouse by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in his personal financial disclosure forms, an apparent violation of House rules.

On the most recent disclosure forms, Knollenberg reported the value of the property at $50,000 to $100,000, down from the $100,000 to $250,000 range he reported the year before, despite the fact that District of Columbia tax records indicate a current assessed value of $781,840.

"The Congressman has always striven to go above and beyond the required financial disclosure requirements," Knollenberg spokesman Nate Bailey said. "He has nothing to hide. It appears that his accountant has made a clerical error, and that inadvertent mistake will be corrected immediately."

I guess Joe and his accountant must have a reading comprehension problem. That doesn't appear to be going above and beyond to me. How about you?

Maybe that's what Joe Knollenberg and George W. Bush will call the $9 trillion debt they've racked up, a "clerical error."