web examples:
• Overall, Democrats in those states consider [Bill Clinton] more of an asset than a liability, though he gets negative ratings from self-described independent Democrats
• [Bill] Clinton has proven to be too much of a liability to risk letting him talk off the cuff to the media.
• But Mr Ahern had become an electoral liability. His poll ratings have slumped as the public and his coalition partners [have] lost confidence in his credibility
• Obama’s “Spiritual Advisor”: A Real Political Liability
• For some of Paisley’s colleagues in the DUP, they are further proof that their leader’s son is a political liability.
• The war is a disaster and Bush has become a political liability, but can the Democrats turn that into midterm triumph?
• he hoped that the party would jettison its current head, Peretz -- who has become a political liability for the prime minister
• Their harrowing accounts seem to have made the FARC's leaders realise that Ms Betancourt has become a political liability for them — especially were she to die
• Giuliani's Business Ties Could Be a Political Liability - As a partner in a law and lobbying firm, Rudy Giuliani has profited from his firm's ...
• whereas religion is a ‘political liability’ in the UK
• that his Catholic religion would not be a serious liability in heavily Protestant states, but in fact it was such a liability in the general election.
• But the subsidies contained in the bill are also becoming a political liability as food prices soar.
• [the district attorney], on his second term, said his decision could be a political liability when he is up for re-election in 2010.
• The party has spent a decade trying to run away from the subject of gun rights, which has proven a political liability in key states
• However, a resurgence of kidnappings was becoming a political liability for both the government and the UN mission in Haiti
• Iraq will be a serious liability going into November's polls
• Liberal Party membership is still seen as a political liability among university students.
• In fact, polls have consistently showed that voters think Clinton's gender is a bigger liability than Obama's race.
• Candidate's private life becomes liability
• The US president, George Bush, was transferred to the Alabama national guard during the Vietnam war because his drunken behaviour was a political liability

On second thought, I think you can use either 'to' or 'for' in English, and I would guess that you can probably use either 'für' or the dative in German. So maybe some combination of the following?

be a liability for so./sth.
eine Belastung für jmdn./etw. sein/darstellen (?)
be a liability to so./sth.
jmdm./etw. [Dat.] eine Belastung sein/darstellen (?)



I'm also wondering about 'liability to' in the sense of 'Anfälligkeit für,' 'Hang zu' -- is that by any chance BE only?

It sounds off to me; we use 'be liable to' in this sense, but not the noun as far as I know. That would be 'tendency' or something instead.


(2/2)

•abil•ity /lablti/ noun (pl. -ies)

1 [U] ~ (for sth)| ~ (to do sth) the state of being legally responsible for sth: The company cannot accept liability for any damage caused by natural disasters.
2 [C, usually sing.] (informal) a person or thing that causes you a lot of problems: Since his injury, Jones has become more of a liability than an asset to the team. The debate on Europe is proving to be something of a liability for the Prime Minister.
3 [C, usually pl.] the amount of money that a person or company owes: The company is reported to have liabilities of nearly $90 000. Our financial advisers will concentrate on minimizing your tax liabilities and maximizing your income.—compare asset




©Oxford University Press, 2005

1 - ein Zustand, gesetzlich verantwortlich für etw. sein:
die Firma kann nicht die Verantwortung für irgend einen Schaden übernehmen, der durch natürliche Katastrophen verursacht ist.- "Verantwortung"
2 - ( , gewöhnlich sing.) (informell) eine Person oder eine
Sache, die Ihnen eine Menge Probleme verursacht: "Belastung"

3 - der Menge an Geld, die eine Person oder Firma besitzt
(Aktiva)

w, dein Kommentar ist unverstaendlich, das Ziel deiner Aussage unklar.

Es gibt x Eintraege in LEO zu liability: Dictionary: liability

Unter diesen befindet sich der von hm--us beanstandete, fuer den ich ebenfalls keine Berechtigung sehe.

Loeschung unterstuetzt, Nachtraege ebenfalls.

some German examples of our very own party-political liabilities:

on Kohl:
http://www.gegenstandpunkt.com/gs/00/1/spende...
"Und mit dem Abstand vom trotzigen Einheitskanzler ist die Sache ja nicht erledigt. Belastete Freunde, Männerfreunde zumal, aus den besseren Tagen des Vereins sind auch eine Belastung der Partei, mit der ihre gelernten Repräsentanten in eine neue Runde der völkischen Vertrauenswerbung starten wollen. "


http://www.ciao.de/Mein_Tagebuch_Droemer_Kohl...
"Helmut Kohl, der Patriarch der CDU und jahrelange Übervater ist zu einer nicht mehr tragbaren Belastung für seine Partei geworden."

Möllemann:
http://www.antisemitismus.net/deutschland/fdp...
"antwortete Guido Westerwelle auf die Frage, warum sich denn Möllemann nicht bei Michel Friedman entschuldigen könne, wenn er einen Fehler einsehen würde: "Das frage ich mich auch." Gleichzeitig betonte der Parteivorsitzende jedoch, dass sein Stellvertreter keine Belastung für die Partei wäre. "

http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-kurier/ar...
"Die Union bangt um den Ruf Deutschlands jenseits der Grenzen. "Er wird zunehmend zur Belastung für die deutsche Innen- und Außenpolitik", sagte Fraktionschef Friedrich Merz (CDU) über Möllemann."

:-)