WHEN WILL BUSH PARDON HIS BUDDY, REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISER AND CROOK TOM NOE?

When I started Down With Tyranny, I had two very special Republicrooks in mind, San Diego area Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (currently serving 4 years in prison on a bribery conviction) and Ohio GOP kingpin and coin thief, Tom Noe. Today Noe was sentenced to 18 years in prison, having been convicted of "theft, corrupt activity, money laundering, forgery and tampering with records."


Noe had already been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally helping to fund the BushCheney re-election campaign. It is widely believed, though no real investigation has been done yet, that he worked with Ken Blackwell and the Ohio Republican Party machine to steal the 2004 election for Bush. Ohio's newly elected Attorney General, Marc Dann, estimates that over a billion dollars per year have been stolen from Ohio residents by the corrupt Republican political machine operating, until now, virtually without checks or balances.


Noe was also fined $120,000 but the out-going Republican Attorney General, Jim Petro, who himself is implicated in the conspiracy, claims Noe stole over $4 million. Most political observers credit Noe's unchecked greed and wanton criminality with the undoing of Ohio's Republican Party in the recent elections in which the GOP lost the governor's mansion, a Senate seat and both the Attorney General and Secretary of State positions.