Saturday, August 13, 2005
Coin-Gate, Will Bob Taft be Ohio's first convicted governor?
From the Toledo Blade comes this piece on the possibilities ahead for beleaguered Gov. Bob Taft.
Gov. Bob Taft’s longtime executive assistant, Jean Booze, is in charge of filling out the governor’s annual financial disclosure statements that have become the centerpiece of an investigation into the state’s top executive for possible ethics violations.It appears that Gov Bob thinks the law applys to other people, even when he signed it into law.
But when the governor talks about “errors and omissions” in failing to disclose golf outings on those forms filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission, he is not talking about Ms. Booze, Taft spokesman Orest Holubec told The Blade.
“The governor signs the report and is responsible for what is in the reports,” Mr. Holubec said yesterday.
A day after the Ohio Ethics Commission indicated it would forward its investigation of Mr. Taft to prosecutors for possible criminal charges, Democrats raised the specter of Mr. Taft becoming the first governor in Ohio history to be convicted of a crime while in office.
Since 2001, public officials also have been barred from accepting free golf outings with anyone doing business with their agency.The Taft name has long been respected among Republicans, and the public in general, for integrity in public service. Is Gov. Bob the new face of Republican integrity?
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Last week, in response to public records requests, the governor’s office released documents showing Mr. Taft had accepted about 25 invitations to play golf since taking office in 1999. The records did not indicate who paid for the outings, which included a round at Toledo’s exclusive Inverness Club with former Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe in 2001.
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