Wow, what is it with Republicans and cooked books?
First, a few months back, we learned an accountant for the National Republican Congressional Committee was allegedly cooking that group’s books to cover up some money that got up and walked away. There’s even some forged accounting paperwork to show just how well-done those cooked books really were.
That same fellow was also accountant to a number of Republican incumbents, including Rep. Mark Kirk. No allegations of wrongdoing amongst those campaigns have made — but the guy no longer works for Rep. Kirk as far as I know.
Now, we learn that somebody in Republican former State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka’s office has been indicted for stealing three quarters of a million dollars. That’s a lot of coupons to clip… This woman apparently used the money she stole to pay college bills, buy a yacht and go on a cruise and is now facing up to 20 years in Club Fed.
And, it was all discovered during an investigation by current State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias — the guy that continues to pleasantly surprise just about everyone with his adeptness and transparency in governing. The alleged crimes all happened well before Treasurer Giannoulias took over the office, under the tenure of then-Treas. Topinka who unfortunately didn’t know about it. (In all fairness, had Ms. Topinka known about it she likely would’ve done the same thing her successor did — turn the evidence over to the Feds and cooperate in any way she could.)
Treasurer Giannoulias told the Sun-Times:
“This indictment represents a stunning disregard for the pubic trust and an appalling display of fraud by someone who was supposed to be responsible for protecting taxpayers’ dollars,” said Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, whose office uncovered the alleged wrongdoing, which predated his tenure.
Exactly.
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April 2, 2008 at 4:31 pm
OneMan
Well she did work for the office for 33 years (so she must have started in 1975) who was governor in 1975 (oh, yeah Dan Walker – D)
I think saying this is some sort of GOP thing is a bit of a stretch.
Oh yeah how do Democratic governors stack up against Republicans for time in club fed?
April 2, 2008 at 6:11 pm
robnesvacil
Point taken. And, actually, the State Treasurer in 1975 was Alan Dixon. You may have heard of him.
The fact is the woman committed her alleged crime after Treas. Topinka had been in office for more than a decade.
Topinka is a Republican. The crime happened under her tenure. Had she discovered it, it probably would’ve been reported in the same way Treas. Giannoulias did.
That said, it was discovered as Giannoulias’ team was doing a comprehensive audit and updating reporting procedures…
As Kevin Fanning noted in comments to his CapFax post (linked above), Topinka’s office was still using paper records and that is how the alleged crime was able to slip through til now.
My beef isn’t with Republican Topinka for the apparent crime. It’s with Republican Topinka for not having upgraded the office to detect a $750,000 crime before it could grow so large.
And the NRCC funding fraud is cut and dry… So yes, that is a GOP thing.
April 2, 2008 at 9:29 pm
OneMan
I just am used to you guys generally not taking the cheap shot (even after Cheap Trick day), that’s what the leader is for (and that coming from a Republican).
April 2, 2008 at 11:53 pm
robnesvacil
Fair enough, but the first thing that popped in my head when I read Kevin’s post this morn about the alleged book cooking was the trouble at the NRCC.
And, again, I did quite clearly give Judy Baar the benefit of the doubt in my original post. She wasn’t the one cooking the books — her employee allegedly was.
(If you do want to get into a litany of Republicans and their supporters cooking books, I could easily go on to discuss everything from Denny Hastert’s “bending” of the rules to whip up votes for the GOP’s prescription drug plan to Jim Oberweis’ recent fuzzy math used to tar and feather Rep. Bill Foster. My hunch is you’d rather not belabor that larger issue.)