If you were about to give to the National Republican Congressional Committee, close your wallet. It's not certain yet, but it seems that that committee has been hemorrhaging money into an elaborate embezzlement setup invented by its former treasurer, Christopher J. Ward.
You may not have heard of Ward, but you've probably heard of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who leveled attacks that were not well founded at John Kerry 's Vietnam service record in the 2004 presidential election. Ward was a partner in Political Compliance Services, Inc., a company that did $230,000 worth of database management and consulting for Swift Boat Veterans, though that account was apparently handled by another partner, not Ward.
Ward didn't only have his hands in the NRCC's big bag. During the past 10 years he's been treasurer of over 80 Republican funds, including congressmen's PACS with names like Safeguarding America by Expanding National Security (SAXPAC) and, get this, Prosperity Helps Inspire Liberty (PHILPAC). Ward may soon be longer on prosperity than on liberty, since he seems to have lied about audits for the NRCC money which, it appears, were never performed.
It's not a good year for this to happen to the GOP. Thirty-five seats are up for grabs in the U.S. Senate, 23 of them Republican and 10 of those hotly contested. Only two Democratic seats are believed to be in jeopardy. Republicans may lose 10 House seats; Democrats are expected to lose none.
Still, there's a healthy dose of black humor in the Ward scandal, since money grabs are so much of what this Republican administration has been about: robbing the taxpayer to pass money through to Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater, to the casino companies that are "rebuilding" the Gulf Coast after Katrina, to other corporations. Do the Republicans feel stung? How do their fellow Americans feel when they lose income because reservist status takes them from their jobs and sends them to Iraq, or when a trip abroad shows them what war and poor money policy have done to the dollar? Maybe the GOP will tell their committee officers that ethics are more important than money. Then maybe they'll tell that to Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and George Bush.
