Sunday, November 05, 2006

We try to be "Fair & Balanced"

Which is why we are telling you about this article from the Toledo Blade about the Tom Noe trial. To be fair, we note that there was no attempt by the prosecution to tie Mr Noe's alleged thefts to his political contributions. And to be balanced we give you these details that have emerged.
Records show that Noe contributed $1,000 to Ms. Montgomery's campaign account in March, 2004, just days after transferring $25,000 in coin funds into his account.

In fact, the state's audit revealed that the day after Noe got the first $25 million on March 31, 1998, he transferred $135,000 in coin-fund money to himself, a forensic accountant testified.

Then, on April 7, Noe and his wife, Bernadette, who shared a checking account, wrote $4,500 in contributions to Bob Taft, the then-secretary of state running for governor. Two days later, Ms. Noe sent $2,000 to George Voinovich, then-Ohio governor who was running for the U.S. Senate.

Mr. Voinovich was governor when the law was changed that allowed the bureau to invest more broadly, and eventually in rare coins. His former chief of staff, the late Paul Mifsud, lobbied for those changes. Mr. Mifsud was a good friend of the Noes and bought coins from the Maumee coin dealer.

Others besides Senator Voinovich, Governor Taft, and Auditor Montgomery, based on the timing of Noe's transfers, who may have gotten state coin-fund money: Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine's leadership PAC, state Sen. Randy Gardner, and Lucas County Auditor Larry Kaczala.

All got checks from Noe in the days and weeks after he wrote himself checks with coin-fund money.
So you see, Tom Noe was not laundering state funds to Republicans, he just gave them money when he was flush. And he only allegedly stole because he ran low on funds to distribute. Simple, isn't it? And it helps to explain poll numbers like this.


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