NO JAIL TIME FOR GUILTY TAFT-- AT LEAST NOT YET

In the first-- and most minor-- of the cases being brought against Ohio's criminal governor, Bob Taft, he got off very lightly. After pleading "no contest," the judge found him guilty of 4 criminal ethics violations and fined him $4,000 (the maximum $1,000 per charge). He could have been sentenced to 2 years in prison but he skipped out of the courthouse free as a bird-- until the more serious indictments start. Taft has forced others to resign from his corrupt administration for being caught in ethics lapses but he refuses to resign himself for reasons he is unwilling to share with the people of Ohio.

Taft, who is the great-grandson of mediocre President and less-than-mediocre Supreme Court Judge William Howard Taft and the son and grandson of 2 awful U.S. Senators, comes to Ohio politics with an incredible sense of entitlement, comparable to that of his ally George Bush. He is not only the least popular governor in the United States, his approval rating (which was 17% last week and could even sink lower after today's tacit -- though not technical-- admission of guilt) is the lowest recorded for any governor of any state ever. One of Taft's biggest supporters, Lucas County Republican Chairman and GOP kingmaker Thomas Noe, looted untold millions of dollars from the Ohio State Workmen's Compensation Fund with Taft's connivance. The stolen funds found their way into campaign coffers not just for Taft but for nearly every Republican official in Ohio, as well as into the campaigns of George Bush (Noe being a fatcat Bush "Pioneer") and Arnold Schwarzenegger. There are ongoing federal and state investigations into where exactly the stolen funds went since some seem to have found its way into the pockets of GOP pols and into an illegal campaign slush fund operated by Secretary of State Ken Blackwell to help undermine Ohio's 2004 presidential election. Taft and Blackwell were able to deliver Ohio (and thereby the election) to Bush by utterly destroying the Ohio democratic process. If you want the specifics of how they stole the election, please read the CONYERS REPORT.

Taft's 1998 election was the most expensive campaign in Ohio history and Taft was a captive to every big-spending special interest in the state (and outside the state). The culture of corruption that has enveloped the entire national Republican Party is so extreme in Ohio that even 7 tainted Ohio Supreme Court judges have been forced to recuse themselves from the cases involving Thomas Noe, who was a generous contributor to their campaigns! The cases being investigated now involving Taft and his administration are likely to keep him busy for the rest of his 16 month term, unless he winds up in prison before his term ends.