CoinGate: Lest We Forget...

In all the shouting about the CoinGate scandal, we shouldn't forget that the Democrats have had their own problems with ethics scandals.

Jason from State of the Union reminds us that the Democrats are throwing stones while in glass houses. The highlights (or is that lowlights?):

"As governor [Richard F. Celeste] was confronted with ethical questions and scandals involving hand-picked members of his Cabinet and administration. Shortly after his election in 1982, campaign records showed that Celeste had paid himself a $45,000 consultant's fee from his political fund during his race for governor."

"In 1985, Celeste acted decisively to prevent a panic by closing all state-chartered savings and loans after the collapse of Home State Savings Bank, a Cincinnati-based thrift institution. But the owner of Home State, Cincinnati millionaire Marvin L. Warner, was a Celeste contributor whom the governor had tapped to head the Ohio Building Authority. Warner resigned and was convicted of securities violations."

"James E. Rogers, Celeste's first choice to head the Department of Youth Services, also went to prison, convicted of extortion."

"Celeste's director of Administrative Services, William G. Sykes, embarrassed the governor when he was discovered putting state-owned furniture in his home. After stepping down from the Cabinet post, he was named by Celeste as chairman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, but was convicted in 1991 of a state ethics law violation."

"Celeste was re-elected in a 1986 landslide, but soon had to answer for his Bureau of Employment Services, which had awarded a $5.2 million, no-bid contract for telephone services to businessman Carl Milstein, who had a criminal record. Milstein's Brook Park firm also had lucrative, no-bid contracts with several other state agencies, and Milstein had given generously to the Ohio Democratic Party."

(Source: The Plain Dealer 9/24/97)

And it's not just Celeste:

Pay-to-Play:

“Stephanie Tubbs Jones, an Ohio Democrat who sits on the House ethics committee, took a 2001 trip to Puerto Rico that was paid for by a registered lobbyist firm — an apparent violation of the chamber's ethics rules — according to documents that she filed with the House clerk.” (Washington Times, 4/20/05)

“Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones ranks seventh among U.S. representatives and senators in the number of trips taken since 2000 that were paid for by outside groups, according to a study of congressional travel compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine. …Watchdog groups like the Congressional Accountability Project say privately funded trips let special interests buy influence with members of Congress.” (The Plain Dealer, 4/27/05)

Ethics Violations:

“[State Sen. Ray] Miller, a Columbus Democrat already facing a criminal investigation for his office staff's use of state time and equipment, is now looking at an elections-law violation for recently soliciting campaign contributions from dozens of state employees through the mail and e-mail. Ohio law prohibits candidates for state offices from asking state employees for donations.” (The Columbus Dispatch, 6/2/05)

Corruption:

“State Sen. Jeffrey D. Johnson [D-Cleveland] lost the most important vote of his 14-year political career yesterday. A federal court jury decided he was guilty of three corruption charges that said he extorted campaign contributions from grocers. …Justice Department prosecutors Stephen P. Anthony and Daniel P. Butler said the verdicts also send a message to government officials. ‘It's wrong for a public official like State Sen. Jeff Johnson to sell his influence,’ Anthony said. ‘It's that simple.’” (The Plain Dealer, 1/21/98)

Patronage:

“[Thomas] Reed is one of scores of new [Cuyahoga] county employees hired since the beginning of 1996. Brought in by the new county auditor, treasurer, recorder and new commissioners, all Democrats, many of the new workers have ties to the politicians who gave them jobs.” (The Plain Dealer, 1/11/98)

Oh, And Don't Forget Traficant:

“Less than a week after being kicked out of Congress, James Traficant felt the cold grip of two well-worn pairs of stainless steel handcuffs wrapped around his wrists. U.S. Judge Lesley Wells sentenced the former House member from Youngstown to eight years in prison and fined him $150,000 yesterday after a three-hour hearing that included Traficant screaming, swearing and spewing government conspiracy theories. The sentence comes almost 15 weeks after a jury convicted Traficant of 10 corruption-related counts - trading political favors for cash, gifts and work on his horse farm.” (The Plain Dealer, 7/31/02)

The real CoinGate story, though, is the action taken by Republican leadership. How much of this have you heard in the papers?

Within weeks of these issues being uncovered:

Attorney General Jim Petro has already taken legal action against both investment firms in question.

Auditor Betty Montgomery has appointed an independent audit team to review the bureau's investment practices.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has opened investigations into campaign finance issues surrounding the investment managers in question (who have given contributions to BOTH political parties).

The bureau administrator has been replaced along with internal managers who made improper investment decisions.

The governor has appointed a management review team to review investment policy, procedures and control at the bureau.

A joint legislative committee has been created to recommend a new governance structure for BWC that would separate the investment function from the insurance function of the bureau.

Legislative leaders are drafting legisaltion to prohibit non-traditional investments and add two additional investment experts to the bureau's oversight commission.

The governor has appointed a special Liaison to the BWC to keep him informed on day-to-day developments at the bureau.

What are Democrats doing? Well, they had two of their own people sitting on an oversight panel charged with monitoring the bureau and its investment practices. One of them, AFL-CIO president Bill Burga, has been there taking a state paycheck for a decade and had no idea what was going on. The other, George Forbes, has a daughter who works for the company that lost $215 million in state investment money. The rest of the Democratic Party is (as usual) working overtime to point fingers and assign blame while failing to say one thing about their vision for Ohio.

The media wants to report on a scandal. They don't want to report on the action being taken to provent this sort of thing from happening again. NOTE TO FELLOW BLOGGERS: This is the sort of thing that we are supposed to be covering. NOTE TO BLOG READERS: And we need to send emails to the media asking them why they aren't covering this. Have at it!