Crooks and Shysters – What a Mess in Ohio

Sad politics in Ohio and evidence continues to mount that the presidential election was stolen there in 2004.

The problems detailed below are congenital within the Republican Party. This is the culture that Bush/Cheney/Abramoff and their minions have cultivated. There is a way to end this sleaze – vote Democrat.

Blackwell defends campaign donations
Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican candidate for governor, has accepted more than $1 million in contributions from employees of firms seeking business with the statewide offices he's held over the past 12 years.........financial institutions contributing to the campaigns of Mr. Blackwell, who became secretary of state in 1999 after nearly five years as state treasurer, have given at least $1.34 million to the Ohio Republican Party. In turn, the party has shipped at least $1.29 million to Mr. Blackwell's campaigns.

Taft faces call for discipline in ethics case
Gov. Bob Taft, who has been a lawyer in Ohio since 1976, should be disciplined for failing to report golf outings and other gifts on his annual ethics statements, according to a complaint that the Ohio Supreme Court’s disciplinary counsel has filed. Jonathan Coughlan, the Supreme Court’s disciplinary counsel, said Mr. Taft violated Ohio’s code of professional conduct for lawyers, which states that a lawyer shall not “engage in any other conduct that adversely reflects on the lawyer’s fitness to practice law.” The governor could face discipline ranging from a public reprimand to a permanent loss of his law license. “A public office is a public trust,” wrote Mr. Coughlan in the five-page complaint that became public yesterday. “… Such offices are created for the public’s benefit, not for the benefit of the incumbent.”

Mr. Taft, a Republican who is the great-grandson of a U.S. president, pleaded no contest in August to four misdemeanor violations of state ethics laws. The governor was found guilty and fined $4,000. He was the first sitting governor in Ohio to be convicted of a crime.

Witnesses say they funneled donations
Tom Noe was so eager to become a Bush “Pioneer” that he used a pair of former top aides to Gov. Bob Taft to launder campaign contributions to the President’s re-election bid, documents released yesterday by prosecutors show. H. Douglas Talbott told investigators last summer that he and Doug Moormann took part in Mr. Noe’s alleged scheme in October, 2003, to illegally funnel money into the President’s campaign. As a reward for their fund-raising efforts, Mr. Noe gained the elite fund-raising status and an invitation to a White House Christmas party, and Mr. Talbott had his photo taken with the President, Mr. Talbott said. Mr. Talbott and Mr. Moormann, also aides to former Gov. George Voinovich, were convicted on ethics violations yesterday for failing to report money they were given from Mr. Noe.

Note: The Toledo Blade is a great newspaper.
Posted on The Human Stain