Republican Thieves; or, It's All About the Benjamins

From large to smaller, the Republican party has been ripping off the country for the last five years. Just look at the Iraq War Cost Clock in the post below, for the big rip-off. What follows are some of the smaller rip-offs. I was tempted to say small, but how can you say that people who are siphoning tens of thousands and millions of dollars are small rip-off artists? They're just smaller. And ethically, and morally, they have to look up to see the curb. Worms.

Front page of the Washington Post, today:

Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit
Bulk of Group's Funds Tied to Abramoff

Tom Delay's chief of staff created a nonprofit then paid 1/3 of its monies -- more than a million dollars - to himself. Nice work if you can get it.

A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.

Notice that Buckham's wife was one the beneficiaries. That's because she was designated as a 'fundraiser' for the nonprofit, so she got 10% off the top of anything that was donated.

Apparently this thieving model was circulating in Republican circles, because Rep. John Doolittle's (R-CA) wife took 15% of the monies contributed to his campaign, and Rep. John Sweeney's (R-NY) wife took 10% of the monies donated to her husband's campaign. Neither woman had any prior experience as a fundraiser. Nice work if you can get it, no?

Barbara Bush earmarked a charitable contribution ostensibly for Katrina victims to her ne'er-do-well son's company, Ignite! Problem is, Barbara Bush is also an investor (Washington Post, December 28, 2003) in Neil Bush's company. So she earmarked a charitable donation to enrich her own investment. Nice work if you can get it. I guess given that she's filthy rich anyway, this is working out very well for her.