NOE THREATENS TO TAKE DOWN THE WHOLE OHIO GOP WITH HIM. WATCH FOR A PLANE ACCIDENT SOON

Mainstream media has reported that Ohio Governor Bob Taft has been found guilty of 4 counts of criminal golf-playing. Outside of Ohio it's hard for average media consumers to understand about the Republican Party's culture of corruption and how Taft led his state's GOP into the biggest scandal in American history, culminating in the theft of the 2004 presidential election. The information is all there but CBS, NBC, ABC CNN, let alone Fox "News," are never going to report it. Instead you have a clown like former Gingrich spokesperson Tony Blankley (now an editor of the Moonie Times) making light of Taft's conviction with golf jokes on NPR's "Left Right and Center." But there is still a good chance that the depths of the whole Republican scandal will blow wide open-- and from a very unlikely source: Thomas Noe.

After practically denying for months that he ever even knew one of his closest political supporters (Noe), Taft is now making the equally absurd claim that he never had a conversation with Noe about the $50 million boondoggle the Ohio Workmen's Compensation Fund gave Noe to "invest" in rare coins (and baseball cards and other collectibles), the "investment" that was used by Taft and the Ohio GOP to finance campaigns for every state and federal office in Ohio (and to corrupt the 2004 presidential election). Through his attorney, William Wilkinson, Noe is calling Taft a liar. Noe flipped out when Taft claimed that he (Noe, one of the people whose gifts caused Taft to be found guilty of 4 criminal counts last week) had worked hard to conceal his involvement in the funds. Wilkinson said what everyone in the state of Ohio already suspects, that this is just another in a long list of Taft cover-ups and that the very idea is an "absurdity." Taft is now claiming he doesn't remember, although he appointed the ill-educated school drop-out Noe to the Ohio Board of Regents and to the Ohio Turnpike Commission. (Noe served as chairman of each.)

Ohioans who are not part of the GOP machine claim that Taft is the one working hard-- working on covering-up his systematic criminal activities and working hard to convince people he had nothing to do with Lucas County GOP Chairman Thomas Noe and Lucas County GOP Chairwoman Bernadette Noe, two of the biggest financial contributors to the Ohio GOP (and to Taft's campaigns). Democratic elected officials point out that giving Noe $50 million to "invest" in the highly speculative and completely unregulated rain coins and collectibles market, is pure political payback and part of the "pay-to-play" system the Ohio Republican Machine uses to enrich itself.

Continuing to lie his ass off in a pathetic attempt to distance himself from Noe and his operation, Taft claims Noe "appeared to me to be a businessman who was in a business where he would not have dealings with the state of Ohio. He's someone I've known for 20 years, but we didn't know who Tom Noe really was." It's outrageous bullshit like this that is convincing more and more Ohioans that Taft must resign immediately. For his part, Noe says he will not let Taft walk away from it and make false accusations. Noe's attorney launched a not so subtle shot over Taft's bow Friday by saying that "what people say about what they know and remember is one thing, but to make a false accusation that he concealed information is something that Mr. Noe could not allow. The whole idea that the governor says that this was concealed is an absurdity, in light of the fact that his appointment as the coin-fund manager has been a public record at the bureau since 1998. Ethics Commission filings he was required to make beginning in 2003, when he was appointed to the Turnpike Commission, lists his involvement with the coin funds and all their subsidiaries."