Corruption

I love the fact that Republicans bill themselves as the party of "family values" and stand tall as "upright people", but seem to inordinately often fall prey to sex scandals, corruption charges, and tx evasion.

Here's the latest on corruption among the Florida GOP. The St. Petersburg Times reports:

Political parties, which are tax exempt, are allowed to spend money only on political activities, such as fundraising, running campaigns and registering voters. While it's commonplace for party officials and politicians to wine and dine donors, the Florida party allowed credit card holders to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges with little oversight.

The IRS opened the so-called "primary'' investigation into Rubio, the leading Republican candidate for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat, and the two former state GOP officials to see if there's enough evidence to support a full-fledged criminal inquiry, according to a source familiar with the IRS examination.

Rubio campaign adviser Todd Harris said Tuesday that the former lawmaker from Miami has not been contacted by any federal investigators.

"There is absolutely nothing to this,'' he said. "Anyone who is looking into it or investigating will quickly come to the same conclusion.''

...

Rubio billed the party for more than $100,000 during the two years he served as House speaker, according to credit card statements obtained by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald. The charges included repairs to the family minivan, grocery bills, plane tickets for his wife and purchases from retailers ranging from a wine store near his home to Apple's online store. Rubio also charged the party for dozens of meals during the annual lawmaking session in Tallahassee, even though he received taxpayer subsidies for his meals.

Oh, I'm sure that the campaign advisor is correct. That $100,000 spent on fixing up the minivane, grocery bill, and his wife's purchases are all just "regular" party expenses. Yeah, right! Party expenses in the sense of having a wing-ding of a party. Not party expenses in the sense of administrative costs of running a political party.

This is like Bill Clinton claiming that he "did not have sex with that woman!" The claim will stand up only if the legal authorities permit some strange new definitions of "party" and "expense".