MORE McClellan spin: White House returns $4K to a $100K "Pioneer"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Donor Woes: The White House refunds money to a contributor who may have violated campaign-finance laws.

By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey, Newsweek

June 8 - On Oct. 30, 2003, more than 600 people gathered inside a Hyatt Regency hotel ballroom in downtown Columbus, Ohio, where they lunched on roast-beef sandwiches and listened to President Bush deliver a campaign speech. With admission priced at $2,000 a person, the luncheon raised more than $1.4 million for the president’s re-election effort. But some attendees got more than just an expensive lunch. Individuals who sponsored a $20,000 table at the event—that is, they convinced 10 people to give $2,000 apiece—got to take their picture with Bush. One of those people was Thomas Noe, a Toledo-area rare-coin dealer who ranked as one of the president’s biggest fund-raisers and chaired Bush’s northwest Ohio re-election campaign.

The event is now the subject of a federal investigation into whether Noe violated campaign-finance laws by reimbursing individuals for contributions to the Bush campaign. According to the Columbus Dispatch, at least $25,000 in contributions collected at the event came from the same bank account. Furthermore, at least one donor at the luncheon has told authorities he was reimbursed by Noe for his $2,000 contribution.

Noe, a longtime GOP contributor, is also the subject of an investigation for his handling of $55 million Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation gave him to invest in rare coins. Noe’s attorney Bill Wilkinson has confirmed that as much as $13 million of that money is now missing.

According to the Bush campaign, Noe was a “Major League Pioneer” who raised more than $100,000 for the president’s re-election effort. Personally, Noe and his wife, Bernadette, each wrote $2,000 checks to the Bush campaign. Last week, the White House announced that Bush would return the Noes’ $4,000, but the campaign would not refund the money Noe had raised from other people. When asked about the distinction, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the campaign has made a practice of returning contributions from individuals accused of wrongdoing. “The campaign, if you’ll go back and look, has returned contributions from individuals that maybe have been convicted of crimes, and so forth,” McClellan said. “This one is a certainly unique situation that raises some very serious allegations, and we felt it was the right thing to do to return the contributions that he had made to the campaign.”



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8148149/site/newsweek/

[Kolesar]

1. Beast/Cheney 2004 was funded by Ohio Bureau of Worker's Comp funds

"According to the Columbus Dispatch, at least $25,000 in contributions collected at the event came from the same bank account. Furthermore, at least one donor at the luncheon has told authorities he was reimbursed by Noe for his $2,000 contribution."

IOW, Noe embezzled the money from the public and funded B/C 2004 as a "Pioneer" by bundling $20,000 for 10 tickets to a fundraiser.

[ET Awful]

2. Did he also mention that they want over $40 million BACK from the

families of 9/11 victims?

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/11843218.htm