Scandal, Theft And Fraud At The GOP

Big, BIG scandal at the National Republican Congressional Committee, the chief GOP fund-raising arm of Republicans in the House of Representatives. [NYT]

The NRCC is missing tens of thousands of dollars, and they�re pretty sure it was stolen by the committee�s treasurer, Christopher Ward (who abruptly left the organization a few weeks ago).

Not only that, but they discovered the regular audits Mr. Ward was conducting for the NRCC to show them where all of their fund-raising dollars have been going have been faked since 2003. Oh, and several Republican lawmakers may also have been scammed out of fund-raising cash.

The FBI has been called in for a criminal investigation to find out what�s going on, but this is what we know so far:

Rep. Mike Conway (who just so happens to be a CPA), head of the NRCC auditing committee, thought something smelled a little fishy with the books, so he repeatedly asked Mr. Ward to set up a meeting with the outside audit group keeping track of the committee�s finances. Mr. Ward stalled� and stalled� and stalled, but finally set up a meeting in January.

Thirty minutes before that meeting went down, Mr. Ward sent an e-mail saying there was no audit. The committee then found out there were no auditors. Every audit since 2003 had been made up. (We love that he informed everyone of this in an e-mail. Total weasel move.)

Mr. Ward also handled the fund-raising and finances of several Republican lawmakers personally. At least two, including Rep. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, have discovered �discrepancies in their campaign accounts.�

Our favorite nasty bit of the story: Did we mention Mr. Ward is a partner in the private consulting firm that worked for the Swift Boaters?

This really couldn�t come at a worse time. As The New York Times reports, the NRCC already had their hands full �by the large number of Republican lawmakers � more than two dozen from the House � who have announced their retirements, and by a series of unrelated criminal and ethics investigations of other Congressional Republicans.�

Did we mention Ward was part of the Swift Boat Vets thing?

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