REPUBLICANS ARE BAD DOG FOOD,PRODUCT RECALL

REPUBLICANS ARE BAD DOG FOOD, PRODUCT RECALL

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GOOD MORNING FLINT! 03/14/08 EARLY POST
By Terry Bankert
http://attorneybankert.com/
You are invited to join me at Face Book http://www.facebook.com/people/Terry_Bankert/645845362
Full article at Flint Talk with discussion
http://flinttalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=26118#26118
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"The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they'd take it off the shelf," said retiring Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), who chaired the NRCC for four years earlier this decade.[c] If they were dog food..I love this guy.[trb]

REPUBLICAN THIEF,.....OXYMORON

The former treasurer for the National Republican Congressional Committee transferred as much as $1 million in committee funds into his personal and business accounts, officials announced today, describing a scheme that could prove to be one of the largest campaign frauds in recent history. [w]

NOT US!

Several lawmakers have told Rep. K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, head of the NRCC’s auditing subcommittee, that they think money may be missing from their political committees as well.[f]

THE BUSINESS SPIRIT

For at least four years, Christopher J. Ward, who is under investigation by the FBI, used wire transfers to funnel money out of the NRCC and into other political committees he controlled, then shifted the funds into his own personal accounts, the committee said. [w] THEY DID NOT WATCH THIS GUY DURING THE ENTIRE IRAQ WAR.What was he really doing? What Republican mischief was really going on?[trb]

DECIEVED! ...WMD WAS DECIET! YOUR TOP MONEY GUY IS JUST A SCUMBAG

"The evidence we have today indicated we have been deceived and betrayed for a number of years by a highly respected and trusted individual," said Rep. Tom Cole ®-Okla.), NRCC chairman. [w]

CLIENT-10

The committee also announced that it had submitted to banks five years of audits and financial documents allegedly forged by Ward, some of which were used to secure multimillion-dollar loans. It is a violation of federal bank fraud laws to obtain loans through false statements; such crimes are punishable by up to $1 million in fines and 30 years in prison. [w]

A PARTY FULL OF ACCOUNTANTS, CLUELESS

Prior to today, the committee had not acknowledged that any money was missing. It announced Feb. 1 that it had discovered "irregularities" and had called in federal investigators to pursue a fraud case. [w]

Robert K. Kelner, a lawyer with Covington & Burling, which has been hired by the committee to oversee a forensic audit, told reporters that at this point he could say for certain only that Ward had diverted "several hundred thousand dollars" in unauthorized payments dating to 2004.[w]
Diverted is a soft word, this Republican committed felony embezzlement.[trb]

However, he said that the year-end report filed with the Federal Election Commission in 2006 overstated the NRCC's actual cash on hand by $990,000. [w]

That might be the upper level of how much money Ward allegedly skimmed from NRCC coffers, but Kelner said forensic auditors need to keep "drilling down" to determine how much was inappropriately taken and how much might have been the result of sloppy bookkeeping. [w]

HE WAS ...THE MAN

Kelner said that Ward had the sole power at the NRCC to use wire transfers to shift money into any accounts he wanted. "He was able to get a wire transfer without getting a second sign-off," Kelner said. [w]

After allegedly transferring the NRCC money into accounts he controlled, Ward would move it from those GOP committees into either his political consulting business or his personal bank accounts, Kelner said. [w]

These joint committees from which Ward allegedly diverted funds include committees set up to raise money for an annual dinner with President Bush put on by the NRCC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Those dinners usually meant millions of dollars from the Republican campaign committees. [p]

Ronald Machen, Ward's attorney, has declined comment on the ongoing investigation.[w]

IF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY CANNOT MANAGE ITS OWN MONEY HOW CAN IT MANAGE OURS?

The NRCC, which has been trailing badly its Democratic counterpart in the pursuit of campaign cash, had less than $5.7 million cash on hand Jan. 31, rather than the initial reported total of more than $6.4 million. [w]

The Post reported today that Ward has served as treasurer for 83 committees that raised more than $400 million this decade. The NRCC investigation has sparked widespread jitters among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. [w]

THE DAM BROKE

What might set this investigation apart from previous confirmed cases of political embezzlement is the sheer number of clients Ward served. Drawing on at least 15 years of experience in the complexities of campaign finance laws, he built a reservoir of trust among House Republicans. [w]

BEST AT HELPING HIMSELF..A REPUBLICAN TRADITION

"We were told he was the guy that handled all the campaign committees, he was the best," said Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.). [w]

King said in an interview that he has discovered that Ward paid himself $6,000 in consulting fees from King's political action committee in 2007 -- though King believed that he had shuttered the committee early last year. Upon learning of the NRCC investigation, King said he found that his PAC remained open all last year. Ward paid himself the fees from King's PAC, which received just three contributions and dispensed one check last year, FEC records show. [w]

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

In an election year that holds dismal prospects for congressional Republicans, possible financial problems at the cash-strapped NRCC are the last thing the GOP needed. [w] It's a pretty good idea to me.[trb]

BRAND WELL EARNED, ..BOW WOW BOW WOW ..the Dog Food Party!

"The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they'd take it off the shelf," said retiring Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), who chaired the NRCC for four years earlier this decade. [w]

HE WILL JOIN WITH THEM IN HADIES

The recently indicted Rep. Rick Renzi (Ariz.) and now imprisoned former congressman Robert W. Ney (Ohio), as well as less controversial lawmakers with minor accounting problems, are among the many members of the GOP delegation who turned to Ward to keep them out of trouble with FEC regulators. [w]

SCANDALS ARE JUST A ROUTINE THING FOR REPUBLICIANS.

The financial woes are the latest blow to a congressional Republicans still reeling from earlier scandals, which some members blame for the Democratic takeover of Congress.[c]

LETS COUNT THE OTHER REPUBLICIAN BOTTOM FEEDERS

1.Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned in 2006 to battle a money-laundering indictment in his home state of Texas,
2.and Rep. Bob Ney, the former chairman of the House Administration Committee, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.[c]

3.This year, Rep. John Doolittle, a California Republican whose ties to Abramoff are under scrutiny, announced in January that he will not seek re-election. [c]

4.And in February, a federal grand jury indicted Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi on charges that he promised to support legislation in exchange for a land deal that netted him more than $700,000.[c]

JUST A REGULAR GUY

With a wife and three children, a Volvo sport-utility vehicle and a house in Bethesda, Ward was the classic anonymous party bureaucrat. [w]

LOW LIFE BEGINNING AND END

After receiving his undergraduate degree in political science from what was then Towson State University in 1990, Ward began working in lower-level Republican politics. In the early 1990s, he moved to the compliance side of fundraising dinner committees, the small orbit of staff who ensure that the aides raising and spending donations do so within federal election laws, according to several former NRCC officials. [w]

By the mid-1990s, he started working full time in the compliance shop of the NRCC, gaining an increasing amount of trust from senior staff members, former co-workers said. Lawmakers facing troubles with the FEC, as Renzi did shortly after he won election in 2002, were steered to Ward for help. [w]

MR.FIXIT, WENT TO WORK ON THEM

"He was known as a fix-it guy, and he was known for being good at it," said one former NRCC aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. [w]

Ward was assistant treasurer for the NRCC for half a dozen years, then was promoted to treasurer in 2003, the former officials said, putting him on equal footing with the directors of finance, communications, political operations and legal counsel. [w]

In a system that was designed to prevent fraudulent spending, former aides said that Ward's signature was the last of the four or five required on most major expenditures. [w]

Of the four campaign committees run by House and Senate members, the NRCC raised the largest amount of money by far during House Republicans' 12-year reign on Capitol Hill. Contributions to the committee totaled more than $368 million during the years Ward was treasurer. [w]

Former co-workers and lawmakers said they saw no signs that Ward would ever be the subject of an investigation like this one. Several suggested that he was a workaholic who was in the office 14 hours on some days. [w]

In 2005, 2006 and most of 2007, the NRCC paid Ward paid $80,000 to $90,000 a year, but he was one of only two full-time aides there who were allowed to work as an outside consultant to lawmakers. That doubled his salary, according to a review of records compiled by CQ MoneyLine, a Web site that tracks campaign finances. [w]

Last year, for example, Ward's consulting firm collected $100,000 from the 19 PACs and committees for which he served as treasurer. In October, Ward left the NRCC as treasurer but remained on the payroll as a $7,500-a-month consultant.[w]

AN INKLING

The first inkling of trouble came when Conaway took over the NRCC's auditing subcommittee in early 2007. A certified public accountant himself, Conaway said in interviews that he asked for something considered routine in the corporate world: an audit of NRCC books for the previous year by an outside firm and a meeting with the auditors. [w]

"My expectation was that that frank meeting would take three minutes," Conaway said. [w] Instead, Ward kept putting him off, he said. "Okay, we'll get it for the next meeting, we'll get it for you," Ward said, according to Conaway, who became suspicious of what he described as Ward's "passive aggressive" behavior. [w]

He said Ward avoided the issue for months, until January, when Ward told Conaway that he and GOP lawmakers would meet with auditors. But Ward canceled the meeting 30 minutes before it was scheduled to begin. [w]

FABRICATED AUDITS

Republicans called the outside firm and found out that no audits had been done since 2003. After looking at the documents Ward had given them for each year, they determined that he had fabricated them, according to Davis and other officials with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. [w]

Davis, who now chairs an executive committee that serves as the NRCC board, said that for several years, Ward turned over documents to lawmakers that appeared to be legitimate reviews by an outside firm. They showed accurate balance sheets. [w]

"This guy produced audits, and they looked fine," he said. [w]

In retrospect, Conaway said he wishes he had pushed Ward harder, but added that Ward had become such a trusted presence that he never doubted him or thought to examine his background.[w] "Like a lot of folks, he had grown into the job, had grown into the trust," Conaway said. "It would have been pretty weird if we had said, 'Let's do a background check.' " [w]

But now the committee is working with the FBI, which it called in as soon as officials realized that the audits may have been faked and that they may have violated bank fraud laws. The NRCC has hired an auditor to review its books and a law firm to oversee an internal investigation. [w]

REPUBLICANS COMMIT BANK FRAUD

"Any material misstatement on a bank application is a federal crime," said Stanley Brand, a Washington defense lawyer. He said the committee probably contacted the FBI in an attempt to portray itself as the victim of a crime -- punishable by as much as $1 million in fines and 30 years in prison -- and inoculate NRCC officials from prosecution. [w]

"They blew the whistle on themselves, which is what you'd do to protect yourself," he said. [w]

The committee official said that there has been no sign that the scandal has affected the committee's fundraising but that receipts have dropped since Democrats took control of Congress last year. [c]

Wachovia spokeswoman Carrie Ruddy declined to comment. An official at the Federal Election Commission, which could fine the committee if it misstated the NRCC’s financial position in monthly reports, also declined to comment.[f]

Posted here by Terry Bankert ...GOOD LUCK
http://attorneybankert.com/
Join my political party of preference, LED BY SAINTS AND VISIONARIES
FORGIVE ME MARK I WAS JUST HAVING A GOOD TIME.
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—WHERE DID THIS STUFF COME FROM--

[p]
POLITICO http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9027.html

[w]
The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031302841.html?hpid=topnews

[c]
CNN http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/13/gop.probe/

[f]
Fortwayne.com http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/NEWS03/803130330

[cbs]
CBS News http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/13/politics/animal/main3933440.shtml


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