ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN CROWN PRINCE INDICTED, FACES 100 YEARS IN JAIL FOR YEARS OF CORRUPTION

Don't get the idea that the only corrupt Republicans are the ones lurking around toilet stalls or paying for unprotected anal sex while wearing red lingerie. Most of the worst are just after money. And for Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona it has always been just about money. In fact there is something about the Mike Carona story that I related to at once. He and his posse called themselves-- although the name no longer fits-- Team Forever. The entire purpose of Team Forever was to get Carona elected sheriff so they could pillage at will and enrich themselves. I'm not that materialistic but when I was around 17 my friends and I had-- and put into operation-- a very similar scheme. Our first day at college we heard a lecture from the president of the student body, a long haired hippie named Sandy Pearlman. We figured the best way to score drugs would be to get into his good graces, as he seemed to be the leader of the hippies on campus. So we decided to grow out our hair and effected scruffy looks and I ran for freshman class president. Wasn't I disappointed to find out he only looked like a druggie and that he had never even smoked any pot (until I turned him on to it by chance one day). Anyway Carona and his pals' plan worked out way better-- for them... until recently.

Although Larry King lamely-- like Larry King does anything any other way-- nicknamed him "America's Sheriff," a title he deserves as much as Rudy Giuliani deserves the moniker "America's Mayor, Carona fooled few people outside of desperate Republican circles. Schwarzenegger, Bush and Rove were all attracted to what they thought of as his genuineness and sought to promote him as a GOP up-and-comer. All the while he was enriching himself and his cronies at the public trough.

According to yesterday's L.A. Times "Carona broke the law by failing to disclose that he had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts for himself, his wife and his former 'longtime mistress,' according to a federal indictment unsealed this morning. The women, Debbie Carona and Deborah Hoffman, were described as co-conspirators and were also indicted." Nice. Read the full Grand Jury indictments.

Team Forever had been at it since the moment Carona got into office in 1998, hiring cronies, selling concealed weapons permits, doing anything a sheriff could do to vacuum up hoards of money. Members of his gang have now turned on him and are testifying against him, although-- being a Republican-- he claims he did nothing wrong and refuses to step down.

Today's NY Times make a point of the fact that "Plea agreements with two men charged as co-conspirators in the alleged corruption scheme were also unsealed Tuesday. Mr. Carona had appointed the men, George H. Jaramillo, a lawyer, and Donald Haidl, a businessman, assistant sheriffs. Mr. Jaramillo admitted that he had illegally accepted money from Mr. Haidl from 1998 through 2002. Mr. Haidl pleaded guilty to filing a false 2002 tax return and admitted paying Mr. Carona and Mr. Jaramillo for years. In court papers, prosecutors said Mr. Haidl paid Mr. Carona and Mr. Jaramillo as much as $2,000 each per month at one point, as well as giving them gifts that included use of a private plane and a yacht, a vacation to Lake Tahoe and, for Mr. Jaramillo, a lease on a Mercedes-Benz."

He met with reporters this morning. What a dick!