Facing a contracting embarrassment of abu Ghraib proportions, the State Department needs a credible oversight team now more than ever. Too bad for them the current Inspector General, Howard J. Krongard, already pulled up the drawbridge against accusations of fraud, corruption, mismanagement and (not kidding) slavery. An article in today’s WaPo covers that ground again, but in a shocking twist the reporters uncovered at least one case that IG Krongard does seem to care about:
The son and daughter-in-law of State Department Inspector General Howard J. Krongard have asked a judge to issue a restraining order forcing him to stop sending “unprofessional and highly offensive” e-mails that suggested the family would be put “on the street” if they lost a lawsuit Krongard has filed against them, according to documents filed last week in a New Jersey court.
[…] Krongard filed suit last year against his son, Kenneth W. Krongard, and his daughter-in-law, Kristin, over a home loan that he said they had defaulted on. They paid back the full loan — then totaling about $320,000 — within weeks of his suit being filed.
But Krongard has demanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional interest and penalties and a full repayment of his legal fees. One of the exhibits on file in the case show that Krongard has claimed he has already been billed nearly $114,000 in legal fees.
Your Bush administration. Class acts all.
Tax Analyst
Hey, Tim…”Family Values”, you know.
This little story kind of tells it all, doesn’t it? I know all this love and caring warms and tingles my little heart.
Zifnab
Wow. Really makes you appreciate the parents you’ve got.
Wow
Don’t forget the link to the text of the emails.
Jake
Spare the lawsuit, spoil the child.
srv
If he pursues his own family with such zeal, we can trust that he’ll turn over every stone in Iraq to find the truth.
Punchy
I bet he charges his kids, wife, and grandkids $7 a meal before they dig in for turkey and mashed pots on Thanksgiving. Are they forced to have their family reunions and Christmas celebrations at the gun range?
Seriously…suing your own child? This is by far the most fucked-up thing I’ve heard in a long time.
Salmon of Trout
Well, if you’ve gotta, then you gotta. But to be so vindictive and as vile as this man? Sad, really.
ThymeZone
Heh. People sue family all the time. Spouses sue each other for divorce. If somebody signs a promissory note, or enters into a contract, they are off the hook if they default, because they’re family? Thankfully, no.
Helena Montana
Those family values.
Zifnab
Well, ideally the family figures out what to do with itself in a civil manner. If I borrowed $10 from my mom and she asked me to pay it back, I’d just pay her. If I borrowed $100,000 for a house and was about to default, we would sit down and hash out how I was going to pay her back. But I wouldn’t hire a lawyer to try and squeeze out of every penny I could avoid paying her. And (I pray to god) she wouldn’t hire a lawyer to milk me for every dime of interest or penalties they could dream up together.
The judiciary exists to arbitrate between people who can’t settle their own differences. Suing your relatives just screams “Dysfunctional”. Suing for divorce screams dysfunctional too, but at least the suit makes sense – if you’re that dysfunctional, its no surprise you’re getting a divorce.
whippoorwill
I can’t help it, it’s just funner than a barrel of monkeys watching reptilian republicans self-destruct and eat their own. Of course when it’s their own children, it’s, it’s even more funner. Calloused am I.
Soliton
See my post on the previous thread about Gingrich.
This is SOP with “family values” conservatives.
The only “family value” they enforce is that one must be hypocritical about sexual peccadilloes.
ThymeZone
Uh huh. And if your kid did that, and didn’t pay you back and didn’t return your calls and you needed the money, what would you do? Many people would get a lawyer.
But more to the point, why would anyone sit on a blog and talk about what other people should do in such a situation? It’s none of our fucking business, really, is it?
ThymeZone
Seriously, do you just make this shit up to see how people will react?
A $300k default is a business matter, and if there is a legally binding agreement, for most people it’s a serious business matter. And in this case, or any similar case, what fucking business is it of yours how they handle it?
whippoorwill
The fact that the kid paid the loan shortly after the suit was filed tells me the claim of default be Kronfart is likely bogus. Given his other legal troubles sounds like he needed some quick cash and demanded his son pay the loan in full, right now, or else.
Tsulagi
Way to welcome a daughter-in-law into the family, Inspector.
These kind of familial bonding stories in the Family Values Party just bring a tear to the eye. Kind of like Dan Reihl’s heartwarming tale saying his long shunned gay brother deserved to die alone of AIDS and penniless in a flophouse. Maybe this Krongard and Reihl share some DNA.
One suggestion, Tim. Put the “Assholes” tag in all caps.
Zifnab
Uh… it’s a blog. We have every prerogative to provide snarky commentary and bad advice to every individual foolish or unfortunate enough to find his dirty laundry aired in public. What’s more, this is a classic Larry Craig. Dude comes from the “compassionate conservative” administration and treats his kids like trash. Or maybe not. Who knows? But, given that he’s a suspected slaver, I wouldn’t put “being an ass to his kids” outside his sphere of activity.
Either way, if my kids borrowed $100k from me and then decided to duck and cover till I forgot about it, I clearly would not have done a good job raising them, or been an attentive enough a parent to see that sort of thing coming. And I wouldn’t loan anyone a hundred grand if I thought I was going to need it in the near future. I mean, this would just be a comedy of errors on my part. One things for sure, if I was this unlucky or foolish, I wouldn’t trust me to serve as the State Department Inspector General.
incontrolados
This reminds me of the talk radio types that bitch and moan about how something shouldn’t be a topic of conversation and then do so for 3 to 4 hours at a time.
Sure, it’s that family’s personal business, but it seems that the legal documents in the case are public record. If I’m not mistaken, part of the point was that Krongard, as Inspector General, refuses to inspect stuff that needs to be with the same enthusiasm that he’s shown in the case involving his family.
Punchy
So you’d sue your own kid if he didn’t pay you back on time? Your wife would be cool with destroying the family?
Cain
The one thing I’ve learned is that money and family doesn’t mix. Unless you’re willing to give money without any expectations that they’ll pay it back it’s simply not worth it. I’ve seen too many fights between family members when it comes down to money.
In some way, I’m in agreement with TZ. If you’re willing to look at a loan or what not as a business agreement then proceed, otherwise consider it a charitable gift and forget about it.
cain
Tax Analyst
Well…to your point – No, it really isn’t any of our business and it’s difficult for me to picture this situation occurring in my actual blood-family group…Now if you include the silly-assed, greedy, possessive, foolish and ignorant hyenas that comprise my late Step-Mother’s family, well, that’s different. Anyway, a long story of which you will mercifully be spared…happy ending after much aggravation for our side of the family; $20-25K more for us/less for them and they ran up $60K in legal fees to their incredibly inept attorney for some of the worst legal advice and representation you could imagine. Our fees were slightly less than the additional monies we ended up with in the litigation settlement.
But anyway, the Krongard tale…it’s got a certain amount of value in the realm of “schadenfreude”, don’t you think?
wasabi gasp
Write it off as a lesson learned for spawning an asshole and then make sure that all your death-tax-escaped assets go to your pooch.
Or you can sue your kid, ’cause you know you’ll live forever and won’t ever have to bear the burden of feeling like a dick on your deathbed for making money so important in your life that you’d sue your kids; even kids that are assholes; assholes that you raised; assholes that you nurtured; assholes that you should have spent enough time with to know were assholes before you lent them money.
chopper
don’t know what to think of all this. i’ve seen family screw over family, so who knows the backstory.
but the vindictiveness of this guy, jesus.
Tax Analyst
Ummmm…”Ground” him?
You know, I just went and read the WAPO article and the e-mail excerpts and outside of snarking at Krongard because of his affiliation with the phony-assed “Family Values” party and his apparent incompetence and indifference to matters of great importance to ALL of us I have to agree with TZ’s point that the rest of this crap really is “Intra-Family Business” and none of ours. It’s highly possible that little Kenny and his lovely wife, Kristin are not just poor, innocent babes being threatened and brow-beaten by Kenny’s mean old nasty Daddy. Consider that perhaps they are ALL pricks and prickettes. After all, the fact that the “kids” paid the entire $320K back in full within weeks of the initial filing indicates they had the scratch available to pay it off, but for whatever reason chose not to until Pops initiated legal action. I’m not getting a whole lot of Warm Fuzzies out of either side at this point, but I’ll spew out my completely uninformed and unsolicited impression that they might just all deserve each other.
Evilbeard
Off topic but Hey John did you hear that Rush Limbaugh called you a “Phony Soldier?”
corwin
Hey, his son is probably a republican, too. Nothing better than seeing two republicans screwing over each other, particularly in the same family.
chopper
boil-ass said that about john?
chopper
ah, saw the news. interesting.
ThymeZone
Heh. This entire thread can be summed up thus:
We don’t really know what happened here, we don’t know the salient facts of the case, we haven’t seen the briefs, but by Gawd we have an opinion, and this guys is a Republican, so let’s snark this up and generate some chatter.
You know, kids, if you really want to be different from the fuckhead Republicans, you need to act differently from the way they act. This case is no more our business than the Schiavo case was the GOP’s business.
whippoorwill
The IG for the US State Department stands accused of fraud, corruption, and SLAVERY and it’s none of our business. Not in my world TZ. The secondary story only shows what a hypocritical asshole he is and is totally fair game.
For the time being I want to be just as vicious towards fuckhead repubs as they’ve been toward us. And when they are a defeated and destroyed bucket of political sludge then I’ll be a nice guy again. Not a moment sooner.
wasabi gasp
Except for the bit about this guy being the Inspector General and Schiavo being generally a vegetable.
Zifnab
Except… um… we aren’t passing for legislation in Congress to ban suing your kids. We’re just gossiping about another GOP toad in the hole. Which, I’ve gathered, you disapprove of.
But we want to talk about something, and this thread is at the top of the page. So blame Tim. This is all his fault.
ThymeZone
See, after all this time, I’d have thought you would know at least one thing about me: If you try to put your words in my mouth, I am going to firmly put my words in your mouth.
My words are posted above. What I’m “disapproving of” is shooting your mouth off about something that is none of your business. Here’s a lawsuit with a lot of money at stake, about which you know basically nothing, and you announce that it’s “fucked-up.”
No, it isn’t fucked up, it appears to be a case of somebody owing somebody else money, and the lender taking action to collect. There is nothing “fucked-up” about it, and the single piece of information you would use to support your stupid and inappropriate blast is that the borrower is related to the lender.
You are fucked-up. The whole thing is none of your business, and your comments are absurd. That’s my assertion, and I stand behind it.
And if you try to re-characterize my assertion again, I will restate it again, and we can keep this up all day and all night.
Back to you.
ThymeZone
It’s his fault that you said that a lawsuit about which you know essentially nothing … unless you are holding out information here … is “fucked-up” …. ?
That’s Tim’s fault? Tim’s mistake is being lazy, and reaching for a cheap shot against a Republican who doesn’t matter much, in a case which doesn’t matter much, to fill up space on a blog. Not exactly something that doesn’t happen around here and on the blogs every day. Your mistake is taking the bait and making an absurd assertion.
Challenged on your dumbass assertion, you then make the mistake of trying to go back and duke it out with the challenger. Do you have an end game planned out for this?
Take your time, I’m here all week.
incontrolados
Still yacking about it, like a wingnut radio host.
And in typical talk show host fashion becomes both victim and aggressor.
Say, scroll up and see that you didn’t have a problem commenting about this the FIRST time. Nothing in that comment about any body’s business.
Like I said, just like wing nut radio, only it’s here on this thread. Keep typing about how people shouldn’t be typing about it.
You missed the point.
incontrolados
AGAIN — the man is in charge of investigating things like, I dunno, say Blackwater killing civilians?
No, that doesn’t matter much. Nothing to see here. They’re just doing their jobs. He’s focusing on a family matter more than a little misunderstanding about the deaths of some brown people. It’s all good.
Punchy
Of course not. It’s an everyday occurance that a DAD SUES HIS OWN FUCKING KID.
Man, I have NO IDEA what kind of family life you had, but in mine, this is simply insane. So yeah, I find this fucked up. So shut the fuck up about all of us finding this fucked up. Cuz it is….to us. I’m glad you don’t find it absurd that Dad takes his own family to court.
If you’re not happy that we’re commenting, go find another thread. Until then, I shall continue to state that Dad litigating his wife’s son is hypocritical, mean-spirited, and selfish. In my opinion.
Tax Analyst
Wow! whole lotta bitch-slapping goin’ on ’round ‘loon joose today…keep up the good work and if anyone is still left standing I guess I’ll check you all out again on Monday.
Tim F.
In this case, a distinction without a difference.
You had a good case of righteous indignation going there, ppgaz. Don’t ruin it with overreach.
incontrolados
No he didn’t. He was yammering about not yammering. His “it’s a family matter, leave them alone bwhaa fest happened after his first comment.
TZ, need a cookie?
RSA
I don’t really know or care much about the details, but I do think it’s worth reminding people (not readers of BJ, of course), that President Bush campaigned on a promise “to bring honor and dignity back to the White House.” I see this family business being quite undignified, but I guess if Krongard isn’t literally in the White House,
it’s okayIOKIYAR.Paddy O'Shea
Georgie is a fiscal conservative who is going to keep an eagle eye on the peoples’ money.
He was also elected.
MarkusB
“Your Bush administration. Class acts all.”
I think you misspelled “ass cracks all.”
Evilbeard
9/11 changed everything moonbat!
TenguPhule
Since they consider our personal lives their business for illegal spying, turnabout is fair play.
In this case, I’m gonna have to go with rooting for injuries to both parties.
Every dollar a Republican hack wastes on attacking their relatives is one less they can spend on Swiftboating.
Anony
Let me just say that anyone who knows anything about the IG’s relationship with his family would be rooting for him to lose his shirt in the litigation.
That is all.
keatssycamore
Looks like Rudy Guliani’s been giving parenting lessons again.
Zifnab
Indeed, I do. Unfortunately, if I liked you to goatse or tubgirl, I think John or Tim might ban me. So, much like in Iraq, we are required to stay the course, fight on endless, achieve nothing, and blame it on the Democrats.
Punchy
OT-
I wonder if the front end would ever consider suing the back end.
Duckman GR
Who put TZ in charge of what we and I talk about?
Nobody, that’s what I thought.
If a consensual extra marital affair was Ken Starr’s business, then the IG spending more time suing his own children then doing his job is most assuredly our business.
Or maybe the family stress is impacting his job performance, I mean, suing your kid for $100k isn’t something most people do as a matter of course, regardless of the childs assholeness or no. Perhaps the elder Krongard needs to take some family leave time and get his own house in order before he starts telling other people how to get theirs in order. Again, even more realistically, OUR BUSINESS.
Kevin Hayden
This is another one of those bleeding heart subprimate loan stories, right?
Clearly Bush should bail out the lender dumb enough to make a loan to such a risky homebuyer.
biggerbox
I think that if Krongard is already out $114,000 in legal fees just to clear up a problem with a $320,000 home loan, he needs to find cheaper lawyers.
Ben
Thymezone has a valid point amid the heat of debate. Far too many of us here seem all too eager to blame the Bush hack, regardless of the lack of info provided. It’s a quality we criticize in the majority of the right-wing blogosphere and it would be nice if we at least recognized when our side was sliding down to that level.
That being said, Tax Analyst said it best…
Aside from all the facts we don’t know about this case, and while noting that it doesn’t have anything to do with any actual political issue, I will state this completely informed and valid opinion: THIS FAMILY IS FUCKED UP. The little detail about the son paying up immediately was testament to his lack of integrity. But then you read the father’s emails, and realize he never had any source of integrity from which to draw from in the first place.
The bottom line is that this doesn’t reflect well on Krongard as a person. I’d say you could make the same accusation of George Bush Sr., and that that would be a valid political issue.
Bush reflects on the ramifications of his poor parenting skills…