Well they finally did it to themselves.
At least now, and at least in one state, Democrat politicians are starting to feel the effects of the type of accounting fraud they committed on the country for the last three years.
As the Obama “It’s-not-my-fault” Reelection Tour rumbles westward spewing diesel-powered and politically enhanced particulate matter, charges of fraud are overhanging the Democrats’ fall campaign in California.
But the charges aren’t the familiar “I see dead people voting” scams that usually accompany left-leaning races.
Instead they are fraud charges of the Madoff kind.
California Democrat uber-finance guru, Kinde Durkee, apparently has been practicing accounting methods of the Solyndra kind. As a result, she’s been accused of fraud for potentially misappropriating as much as $7.5 million in campaign funds for as many as 53 liberal candidates and issues committees in the Golden State.
The amount is the difference between what California Democrats says has been reported by the bank, and the amount that was reportedly raised by the various campaigns that Durkee was treasurer for. The FBI said the amount however is more likely in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” range, not millions.
“While the extent of the losses isn't yet clear,” reports Reuters, “the coffers of dozens of Democratic politicians have been frozen, prompting the crippled campaigns to ask the California Fair Political Practices Commission to permit further donations from contributors who have already given the maximum.”
Still, because the money under Durkee’s control was commingled, it’s been impossible for anyone to determine how much money belongs to any given candidate. The accounts have been frozen and that’s left Democrat candidates and committees doing what they do best: screaming for more money and asking for the suspension of the campaign finance limits that they so favor. Laws for thee, but not for me.
California Senator Diane Fienstein has been forced to loan her own campaign $5 million and is doing two other things Democrats are adept at: The Feinstein campaign has disclaimed all responsibility and they have sued First California Bank for “for aiding and abetting Kinde Durkee,” says the Courthouse News Service (CNS).
"A fraud of the scale alleged herein could not have occurred, and did not occur, without the knowing involvement of First California Bank," according to the Feinstein lawsuit, which alleges embezzlement of “millions of dollars from Feinstein's committees” by Durkee according to CNS.
Nor could it have occurred without serious mismanagement by Feinstein’s campaign. The campaign is obligated to maintain meticulous campaign finance records and balance them at the end of each cycle. Feinstein’s campaign has been using Durkee since 1992. And indeed it was probably Feinstein’s patronage that allowed Durkee to draw so many others into the scam, if there ends up being actual evidence of wrong-doing.
I mean, these are Democrats after all. Who knows what the missing money went to? They may have invested in solar-powered frappuccinos- in Alaska- on the recommendation by blue-ribbon panel of Democrats.
Ah, the unintended comedy of unintended consequences can be pretty darn funny. What makes this a special type of hilarity is that Democrats don't see this joke upon themsleves.
I expect any moment that the not-so-reverend, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., will hold a press conference asking that Obama suspend elections, at least until the big solar companies in California can have a chance to return some taxpayer money via campaign contributions to their Democrat benefactors.
And you wondered why the Department of Energy rushed to loan billions more to alternative energy companies before the September 30th, 2011 law allowing them to do so expired?
OK, now I’m not kidding.
Why else would the administration lend billions in new money to largely California-based solar companies in the waning weeks of the loan program after the outcry on Solyndra?
It’s because there is only one thing that matters to the administration. And that’s hanging on to power. We’re not talking solar here either.
In a left-handed way, perhaps this is the reminder that some conservatives need that Democrats will do whatever necessary to win between now and next November.
They’ll plunder the Treasury; they’ll stuff the ballot box; they’ll protest and they’ll occupy.
And then we’ll finally record their epitaph.
“I find the whole thing remarkable,” said Stephen Kaufman, the lawyer for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and several other Durkee clients, in an interview with Business Week. “We have no idea where all the money went.”
See what I mean?
Neither do the rest of us, Stephen. Neither do the rest of us.
But for the rest of us, we're talking trillions, not millions.
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