uh-oh!

someone in the gop involved in a scandal? say it ain't so!

NRCC probe scares GOP
By: Patrick O'Connor and John Bresnahan
Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to GOP sources briefed on the members-only discussions.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has retained a forensic auditor to review its accounting for the last several election cycles, the sources said.
The NRCC’s accounting problems were discussed during two high-level conference calls between senior GOP lawmakers on Friday and Monday night, according to Republicans briefed on the calls.
“There is a sense that this could be very damaging to the committee,” said a Republican insider close to the GOP leadership. .............

FBI probing figure linked to 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth; Accused of forging campaign audit
Michael Roston
.......................Since the spring of 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth paid Ward’s firm nearly $230,000 for services ranging from database management to website consulting, according to disbursements archived at PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan website that tracks fundraising," according to a July 2007 report in The Hill.
Reporter Alexander Bolton also noted that Ward did not directly handle the Swift Boat Vets' work which was carried out by another Political Compliance Services, Inc. partner.
The Swift Boat Vets played a powerful role in the 2004 presidential election. The group raised tens of millions of dollars, much of it from major Republican Party donors, and paid for commercials and mailings questioning Democratic Senator John Kerry's military service record, as well as his anti-war activities after his return from Vietnam................

the swift boaters are still around

and we should all remember that
The Return of the SwiftBoaters
By Christopher Hayes, The Nation
More than three years after John Kerry's bitter defeat, at the dawn of what looks like a far more promising campaign cycle for the Democrats, the party is still haunted by the specter of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Once upon a time, "Swift boat" denoted an obscure military vessel, but thanks to the activities of this group it has come to represent movement conservatism's penchant for ruthlessly (and effectively) smearing any and all political opponents, from a sitting senator and war hero to an 11-year-old boy with a cranial fracture.
Research by The Nation into Federal Election Commission records of the group's top twenty donors reveals that they've been remarkably active in this cycle, contributing and bundling nearly $200,000 to presidential candidates. This does not bode well. During the last presidential campaign, the wealthy backers of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth--now rebranded as Swift Vets and POWs for Truth--didn't do their real dirty work until the general election, where as a tax-exempt 527 group they operated outside the restraints of direct campaign contributions. We may wish we were done with the Swift Boaters, but they aren't done with us. In 2004 the top twenty donors all gave (with one exception) at least $50,000 to the group. The top three--Houston home builder Bob Perry, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens and billionaire drugstore impresario and investor Harold Simmons--gave a combined $9.5 million ($4.45 million, $3 million and $2 million, respectively). .........

the nomination was (suspiciously) withdrawn

and bam the dude is now (suspiciously) the AMBASSADOR TO BELGIUM

yet ANOTHER example of the of the trickery the deceit the lies the appointments of pals (which happens in EVERY administration however this one picks THE most inappropriate ones)

Bush recess appoints major Swift Boat Vets donor

Michael Roston

President George W. Bush circumvented Senate opposition today and recess appointed a controversial nominee as Ambassador to Belgium. Sam Fox, who donated thousands of dollars to the anti-John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans For Truth before the 2004 Presidential election, received the nod from the White House in a quiet personnel announcement this afternoon that caught Senate Democrats off guard.
President Bush had formally withdrawn Fox's nomination last week when it appeared likely that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would reject it and prevent him from receiving a full vote on the Senate floor. Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) issued a strong response shortly before boarding an airplane late in the day, questioning the legal basis for the action..............

ah and a bit more from the hartford courant

By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief, The Hartford Courant

................Connecticut's senators became active on opposite sides of the controversy.Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, took the extraordinary step in February of testifying on behalf of Fox, praising his civic work and calling him a man who "represents what America is all about."The day after the 2006 election, Fox and his wife each contributed $10,500 to Lieberman's Senate re-election campaign.Last week, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the second-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, took a very different view.``His unwillingness to denounce the reprehensible activities of the Swift Boat organization, and express regret for providing $50,000 to bankroll the organization, convinced me that he would not be an acceptable candidate to represent the United States abroad," said Dodd, who usually goes along with presidential nominees...................