Top GOP aide admits fraud

[sabra]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060329tristano,0,4717400.story

Top GOP aide admits fraud


In a guilty plea that reverberated in state government, a one-time chief of staff to former Republican House leader Lee Daniels admitted Wednesday that he illegally steered up to $200,000 in state money and resources to help GOP candidates.

Michael Tristano, 58, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in exchange for a recommended sentence of between 12 and 20 months in prison.

As part of that agreement, Tristano has cooperated with a federal investigation of Daniels, a source close to the probe said.

...

The plea agreement did not discuss the nature of Tristano's cooperation. In the plea agreement, Tristano admitted he joined with "others known and unknown" in the scheme from January 1998 to December 2001. Prosecutors also noted in the plea agreement that in his capacities as chief of staff and campaign director, Tristano "reported to and took direction from" Daniels. The agreement did not elaborate.

[Catch22Dem]

1. That "culture of corruption" line ain't no joke!

We HAVE to keep using that line.

[texpatriot2004]

18. and don't forget the "Cover-Up Congress" they continue to

support the Culture of Corruption.

[seafan]

2. It is all crashing down. Stand back everybody!

We may be getting into *the web* now.

[rodeodance]

8. lets hope so

[C_U_L8R]

3. Is there a single republican

who is NOT a crook???
Is there ONE honest one?
Don't ANY of these people
have any integrity at all?
WTF !!
Seriously !!!
WTF !!!

[Zorra]

4. No. Moral and ethical bankruptcy is the essential defining

characteristic of people that define themselves as a republican.

No decent human being would ever embrace the philosophy of the republican party, and certainly would never condone the actions of republican legislators.

Bottom line.

[EST]

5. The only test I see to determine if a repooplican

has any shred of honesty in his makeup is--did they immediately repudiate the crooked practice, flee the shameful organization and vow to open up all books, cooperate fully, accept responsibility and accountability for the crimes, and offer to make good any and all financial and political losses incurred as a result of their duplicity?
If the answer is "no," then one may safely assume that ratpooplicon is still as big a crook as always.
Republican=liar
We need to continue to demand that any democrat who is guilty of a sign of criminality be drummed out to join his brethren on the dark side, or resign his office immediately and expect that all remaining dems will enthusiastically assist and endorse thorough investigation as well as demand sanction and aggressive prosecution.
We have the rare opportunity to truly become the party of clean, ethical practices and towering principle.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. Not in Illinois. Those that aren't crooks are certifiable.

Unfortunately, both parties suffer from the same ethics and honesty here. Watching indicted pols plea bargain or testify (from both sides) replaces football and baseball as the most popular spectator sport.

[WhiteTara]

6. I can't keep up with the names of

all the crooks and liars in the current repuke party.

[Old and In the Way]

7. Honesty is considered a character defect to be a major league Republican.

Think about it. Would the current Syndicate want honest people in their midsts? Pretty doubtful. One must demonstrate a propensity to lie, steal, cheat, blackmail, propagandize, and hate to be considered a reliable Republican. Like Kooligian....he's a good Republican.

[Supersedeas]

17. Dick Cheaty says, "If you aint cheating, you aint trying" heh heh heh

[last1standing]

9. There are really only two types of republican.

There's the type that knows the real purpose of the party - which is to strengthen the power of a select few people, then there's the self deluding type that honestly thinks the party stands for "wholesome Christian values", fiscal responsibility and self determination. Those few deluded souls who actually end up in office either quickly sell out or leave in disgust.

This has always been the way with the repubs and always will be. As I tell a friend of mine who has always voted conservatively, "Stop listening to what politicians say and start watching what they do. Then vote for the one who works for the things you believe in." He's having trouble with the concept but he's finally realizing that bush* has betrayed his trust.

I'm not really trying to be insulting to conservatives, but the truth is that the repub party has always flirted with fascism, which for practical purposes is a merger of corporation and state. While repubs have used Christianity as a vote getting tool for the last forty years, they really have done little to further it's hold on the United States. Therfore, when the average person is finally able to see past the media blitz that has instilled the idea of repub = Christian, they often change their voting patterns completely. I'm hoping that's what is happening now to some extent. If so, then bush* will have ended up being a gift to this country instead of the eventual cause of it's destruction. We'll find the answer to that in the next two elections.

[underpants]

11. Indicted/convicted and not yet indicted???

:bounce:

[salin]

12. I had completely missed this story... another example of public $$

being used as a republican political slush fund. These stories are getting so rampant, that one has to wonder if they had conference sessions in the late nineties advising one another on how to get away with this at the RNC National conventions.

[formercia]

13. It was organized

This takeover of the US Government has been in the planning stages for decades. If it hadn't been for Iran-Contra and Poppy's crashing popularity after Gulf War I, it would have been a done deal over a decade ago. The Internet has been the only thing that kept it from happening this time. It has been a conspiracy of grand proportions, spanning generations.

As one future neo-con told me in the early eighties: "It won't be like this when we're in charge."

[salin]

14. well thank goodness all that planning.... was INEPT

I honestly think that as more and more goes down hill for the country (due to attrocious policies) and more and more corruption which overwhelmingly has GOP taint from local to state to fed govts.... that we may actually see the first full party disintegration in generations. That thought has only occurred to me in the past couple of weeks... but I am seriously wondering if the party itself will fade away into the dustbin of former national political parties. Not to rest easy, as who knows what will morph-up and take its place.

[formercia]

15. What's happening now is similar to Reconstruction

after the Civil War. An inept and corrupt Republican Party and Congress, along with their cronies and lackeys, raped the South for anything that was of value. It wasn't until recently that Democrats began to lose control there. This time, they are trying to do it on a much grander scale. Unfortunately for them, they have over-extended themselves and their dream of Empire has begun to collapse.

[salin]

16. Odd - it seemed for a long time that we were in a Hoover era,

though the actions of many of the largest corps looked more like the Robber Baron era - Your comparison going back to the Reconstruction era rings true - hadn't thought of it - certainly worth contemplating.

Especially in the view of public dollars and public assets being viewed as means for self and crony enrichment.

A difference, perhaps, is the role of ideology. Not sure that the Reconstruction era was driven by ideology as much as retaliation (though I could be wrong). The problem with the neocons is that they have raised ideology to "truth" and thus policy making to a level of fantasy making (fit the facts and policies to the ideology) - rather than using ideology as a lens through which one then pragmatically deals with policies. The Reagan era had more of the latter - which is what constrained them from going too far on many issues - they would deregulate.... to a point... they would dismantle... to a point... they would wage fake wars... on a small level. This band - remnant Nixonites and Reaganites - from day one pushed aside the restraints seen in the Reagan years, threw away the 'ideology as a lens for pragmiatic policy making' and held so firmly to ideology - facts and realities be d*mned.

I think that Rove is interesting in this - as I do not view him as the same kind of ideologue. More a "King Maker" - and one who 'used' and was simultaneously used by the ideologues to push political "wins" for his candidate - and in doing so the two (the ideologues and roveco) seem to have emboldened each other, amplified each other and accelerated their delusional over-reach - to the point of potentially disintigrating their vehicle/party to power.

[warrens]

19. Daniels is going down

The local news reports here last night said that the name Daniels was mentioned over and over in the plea agreement.