The real scandal behind the obvious one coming down in Ohio shows a trail that leads to the election fraud perpetrated by Republicans in Election 2004. The
LA Times reports that "What started as an unusual investment in rare coins by the state of Ohio... has exploded into a political and legal scandal."
The smoking gun for those of us who want honesty in politics comes through the investment manager Tom Noe, described in news reports as a "wealthy Republican donor." Apparently old Tom and his wife have contributed "tens of thousands of dollars to state GOP candidates, as well as to five of Ohio's seven Supreme Court justices and to President Bush's reelection campaign."
Add to this an FBI investigation looking into whether Noe violated federal campaign financing laws by giving money to people who then turned around and donated it to the Bush reelection campaign, and it seems as though we have some lawbreaking that directly impacted Bush taking Ohio, even without the fact that there were too many voting irregularities going on and some machine rigging to boot.
Authorities are now trying to freeze Noe's assets, and Ohio's Gov. Robert Taft sez "I am outraged." He better be, since the investigation hit his office last week when the state IG began assembling emails and phone records from Taft's employees "who reportedly had accepted gifts from Noe."
$13 million in coins are missing and state workers' compensation chief James Conrad has resigned. Coins have also been found missing from storage facilities in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Florida as well. I wonder who profited from all that missing loot? I think it'll be very interesting to find out which of Taft's employees accepted gifts from said "wealthy Republican donor."