In Louisiana, public corruption happened at the retail level with a $95,000 bribe found in the freezer.
In Ohio, public corruption is taken to scale:
“Federal officials arrested OH House Speaker Larry Householder (R) in connection with a $60-M bribery case.
“Former OH GOP Chairman Matt Borges, longtime Householder adviser Jeff Longstreth, and lobbyists Neil Clark and Juan Cespedes also were arrested.” https://t.co/X9iYCY7EGa
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 21, 2020
Go big and go to the big house….
Open Thread
WereBear
Isn’t it a political tradition to hide your ill-gotten gains in the freezer? Literal cold cash?
rikyrah
He has a ledger. He knows who he paid. He ain’t going down alone. There IS NO HONOR amongst these thieves.
rikyrah
@WereBear:
Or, shoe boxes.
Or, buried coffee cans.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Ha! Fuck Householder
Baud
You need to figure in the difference in the cost of living.
Kathleen
But Ohio Heartland corruption is pure compared with corruption of latte swilling liberal coastal elites. (Auditioning for gig at Vichy Times.)
MattF
Inflation.
dmsilev
How long until Fox News ‘accidentally’ labels him as a Democrat?
Eric U.
I think public corruption usually involves smaller amounts than that since $60M is a lot of money off the top of any crooked enterprise. What were they selling to the gubment, tear gas?
I hope Democrats helped put him into the speaker position because the alternative was an even more horrible republican. Otherwise, I don’t want to know
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
Keurig pods – one bill each.
Eric U.
@mrmoshpotato: It would be interesting to see how many $20 bills you could get into a pod. Quite a few, I’m guessing.
p.a.
The money involved can’t compare, but RI can hold its own (ancient history tbh, 1995ish):
WereBear
Here’s the one I was thinking of, an incident which became famous as the “freezer cash case.”
JPL
@mrmoshpotato: At least they wouldn’t be going to the land fills. Rather than paper towels, trump can toss them out at his next rally. Let’s at least put a Franklin in them.
Nicole
And here I’m always mocking Republican politicians for not only being whores, but being such cheap whores. But $60 million? I stand corrected.
WereBear
@rikyrah: I guess no one trusts the traditional safety deposit box anymore.
Ruckus
@Eric U.:
How much it costs is how deep in you are. They were fully bought and paid for. And willing to do whatever because of that.
Having seen OH politics up reasonably close-lived there, I’m not surprised in the least.
Kent
Oh there’s a hell of a lot more than $95,000 worth of corruption in Louisiana too!
It is just not so newsworthy when whites do it.
Kay
You just cannot believe the level of blatant corruption. People in Ohio pay for this corrupt scheme every month on their utility bills. They literally put in a monthly payment to steal this money.
I was thinking about framing the out of control and systemic corruption as a “tax”. These thieves cost us all every month, really. They tack on a hefty skim to every transaction. That’s what’s really going on here.
A thick layer of corruption on top of every expenditure. Say, 2%.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Vote the GOP out of office? Won’t anyone think of the bribes?
Roger Moore
@WereBear:
Hiding your money in the freezer only works if it’s small potatoes. $60 million in $100 bills is over half a ton of money and it wouldn’t fit in the freezer compartment of a typical domestic refrigerator/freezer. If you had it in mixed denominations, it wouldn’t fit in a chest freezer; you’d need a walk-in unit to hold it all.
Ruckus
There are keys to the box that they don’t control. And access is more limited, bank hours. Plus, as Roger said, it won’t fit in one regular sized box.
Percysowner
@Eric U.:
Billion dollar bailout of failing nuclear plants and relaxing environmental standards.
Among his other achievements was keeping Drag Queens from doing a presentation in libraries and refusing to wear a mask while in the House of Representatives. Eventually a Republican Aid tested positive for COVID-19. The Republicans then decided to notify ONLY Republican staff, but accidentally included a Democratic Aid in the email, so it became public. This led having staff work from home again. I have a relative who works for the Ohio Legislature and boy was I glad when he was sent back home. If the email hadn’t been sent to the wrong person, he would still be going in having who knows what exposure.
Salty Sam
Republican end-game is just Smash’n’Grab, all the way down…
Alex
@Nicole: It’s a jaw-dropping amount by Ohio state government standards
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Don’t the fools know you’re supposed to stuff it in your mattress?
SiubhanDuinne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
John Cole Presents “This Fucking Old Householder”
Kay
I’m sorry for Ohio I am really am, but this state had the highest dollar public money theft in its history with the collapse of a giant online charter school in 2017- 70 million dollars. Nothing happened. No one went to jail and I assume the families of the thieves still have the money. No one even tried to claw it back.
They elected all the same people again. They love to be robbed. They apparently have spare billions sitting around to donate to corrupt GOP lawmakers and their cronies. They happily pay the corruption tax.
Jeffro
Oops! The US Surgeon General just said a little while ago that if we want to re-open schools safely, we have to get the background transmission rate down – masks and social distancing, people!
So maybe insisting they re-open in person…not such a great idea?
Let’s ask trumpov all about it at 5pm, whaddya say, WH reporters?
germy
Cold, hard cash.
Baud
@Kay: When the alternative is women and black people, is it really such a high price to pay, Kay?
kindness
$60 M is a lot of coin. How did they think they were going to hide/shuffle that much money without the Treasury Dept seeing it?
Ruckus
@Kay:
Standard republican?
They just think democrats are worse, might as well go along.
Ken
@Kay: The Vox story you posted in the morning open thread was good. I especially liked the conclusion that the taxpayers of Ohio have now paid for the nuclear plants five times.
Baud
I wonder how much of a cut Trump will take to issue a pardon?
germy
(wikipedia)
jl
big bribes, big man, and maybe big house if Trump doesn’t use DACA decision (that allows him to do ‘anything’) to pardon him . They do things big in Ohio recently. TX covid-19 crisis an attempt to get the title back?
Omnes Omnibus
I lived in Columbus for 15 years. Excuse my while I laugh my ass off.
Ken
@Baud: My suspicion is that the DOJ only moved on this because Trump didn’t get a cut.
(I already said this in the morning open thread, but fortunately we’re decades past the time when every attempt to post to USENET was accompanied by a stern warning that “your message will cost the net hundreds if not thousands of dollars”.)
germy
Baud
@germy: Both sides!
Baud
@Ken:
Maybe we need to bring that back to weed out some of the riff raff.
Ken
@Baud: Problem is, most of the riff raff would glory in the thought that they were making other people spend that much money.
SFBayAreaGal
The advertisement on this page is showing deals on freezers. So appropriate.
jonas
Dang. That makes even New Yorkers look like pikers. Speaking of which...
germy
When i saw this post title, I thought it was covid related.
The times we’re living in are too interesting.
jonas
@germy: The “both sides” angle seems to be “there are corrupt Republicans who both support and hate Trump.”
artem1s
Well Householder has outdone Tom Noe I see. Looks like the Bush Crime Family faction of the OH GOP is still #1. Kasich’s faction was probably the greater of two evils up for the Speakership, I’d bet. The Bush faction was knee deep in Rove stealing OH in the 2000 and 2004 elections for W. They couldn’t quite bring in the state for Mitt in 2012 though. I always believed JEB and Kasich’s fight for control of the OH GOP was the reason the party couldn’t come up with effective counter to Dump in 2016. I sincerely hope that the rumors about King John speaking at the convention are not true. That’s a scorpion waiting to sting us, no matter how much he might hate Dolt45.
Fleeting Expletive
You know, the Constitution has some tools that might be more useful than we have appreciated to date. The third amendment, about soldiers quartering in homes without consent. If Seattle’s hotels refused accommodations to the federal troops, for instance? It would only put the occupiers to a bit of bother in setting up their tents or going to other federal installations for sleeping arrangements, I suppose, but it would be a powerful statement of unity and support for the citizenry.
SiubhanDuinne
The GOP House caucus is all over Rep Liz Cheney (R – Spawn of Satan) because she said something supportive of Dr Fauci recently. Matt Gaetz is calling for Liz to be removed from her position as House Republican Conference Chair.
I’m laughing and laughing.
mvr
Use a closet like Paul Powell. They used to be good at this in Illinois.
Steve Goodman tells the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66nWqQrTbmM&list=PLsFt6Br7FTalTHlJ6SuRcCEr44QQttamD&index=109
trollhattan
You’d think with $60M in your pocket/freezer you could afford to invest in a neck.
Aleta
1–Prison reform: long prison sentences for Republicans and others who’ve been bribing, stealing, ‘approprating,’ cheating, lying to the public, and (like jk) setting up or manipulating govt programs to friends’ and their advantage.
2–Cannot believe no one in Republican circles got wind of this well before investigation. Easy to believe they stayed quiet or kept their ears closed for returned favors.
namekarB
As a child I discovered I could get away with sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar. But I became more brazen and my repeated trips to the cookie jar eventually brought down the Wrath of Mom and taught me an invaluable lesson in being too greedy. My punishment included the loss of privileges and no cookies for a month. Not to mention being laughed at and shamed by my siblings. I continued to look longingly at that cookie jar but the reward was not equal to the risk.
Ken
Both kinds can be found in the Cabinet, and the White House staff, and the re-election campaign, …
LuciaMia
Just looking at his picture, the word ‘thug’ keeps coming to mind.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
Suppose if I’m Liz, I’m thinking, “Yuk it up, jerks, and fuck you because I’m headed to the senate from where I’ll be making you bend the knee.” If there’s one thing daddy dearest taught her, it’s the long game.
NB None of this makes her a good person.
Roger Moore
@mvr:
I know someone who had a massive gun safe- the kind designed for serious collectors- built into one of their closets. You could plausibly use that as an excuse for having a gigantic safe in your house in which to stash your money. You could even keep some guns in there.
trollhattan
Something about that photo has me thinking the shirt is limiting blood flow.
karen marie
@rikyrah: That works for me.
mvr
@Roger Moore: Powell apparently used shoe boxes in the closet.
MagdaInBlack
@mvr:
I do vaguely remember that, couldnt remember the name tho, and yes, it was shoeboxes in a closet.
God Bless Steve Goodman
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
The “babies”, Kay. The “babies”. That’s why
MagdaInBlack
Duplicate, not sure how.
Yutsano
@kindness: Umm…the head of Treasury is a day trader and the head of the IRS is a highly connected mob lawyer. You really think a bribe is going to get their attention? Hell it wouldn’t shock me if they got a cut.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@germy:
Reply to the bottom tweet:
Okay. Not sure what their point is
Continued:
Kay
@Ken:
State government will put a tax lien on anything to collect $21.98 in arrears but tens of millions go out the door and right into the pockets of corrupt lawmakers and they don’t even make an effort to claw it back.
This heist leaves the total at 130 million in the last five years.
I just think it’s been gutted. I was once the victim of a politically motivated audit of campaign finance when I was the volunteer treasurer for a statehouse candidate. Local Republican operatives had me audited. It was only 3200 dollars but I documented and defended, the whole works. I called the attorney for the secretary of state to see if he could send me a letter that I was cleared and he laughed. He said “we won’t even get to your filing in the next three years”. They don’t have any staff. I never heard another word.
If crime committing is your thing, may I suggest Ohio? It’s a free for all.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: She opted to not run for the open Senate seat. Unless something changed except I think their primary is over.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@SiubhanDuinne:
LOL
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Seems to be a consequence of years single party rule. It’s just orders of magnitude worse with conservatives
Just One More Canuck
@trollhattan: how awful a person do you have to be to make Liz Cheney look even vaguely sympathetic
catclub
I wonder if Borges has decided pro-Biden super pac’s are where the money is? If that is where the gullible money is, not a good look.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I know they love the babies but could they possibly find an anti-abortion lawmaker who is not also a brazen crook? Have you ever listened to a statehouse debate? These are not the best people. They’re very replaceable.
Ohio lawmakers once left the generic caption on the top of a lobbyist written ALEC bill. They had to pull the bill to put a specific caption on it. They submitted it with “your state HERE”. Just phoning it in between heists.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Did not know that, I assumed she’d be a shoo-in.
They have a crapton of candidates and their primary is Aug 18. IDK whether a Democrat has any chance in Wyoming, but if they run a buffalo they could give it a shot.
Kay
@catclub:
I KNEW we shouldn’t have gotten involved with these people.
Roger Moore
@mvr:
Part of the problem is that by the time you’re getting into serious money, you’re worried that spending it too obviously might give it away. Buying a big safe would look fishy. That’s why I thought the gun safe would be a nice touch; it would give you an excuse other than money- and an excuse that goes along nicely with GOP politics- to have a gigantic safe in your house.
ETA: You would even have a plausible excuse for hiding getting a giant safe: you don’t want thieves to know you have a bunch of guns for them to steal.
Kent
@Roger Moore: If I’m going to hide massive cash in my house I’m going to seal it up and bury it under ground in my crawl space. And then put the plastic vapor barrier back.
Gun safes? That is just a thief magnet.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
No. No, they can’t. The rot simply goes way too deep. The GOP is effectively a criminal organization, so it really is too much to ask to find a high-ranking member who is not a crook.
Ohio Mom
Another current Ohio corruption case: Ohio’s privatized Medicaid pharmacy benefits managers (and boy, do they “manage” it) “charged managed-care companies such as Buckeye almost a quarter-billion dollars more for drugs than they paid the pharmacies that had dispensed them.”
From: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2020/07/20/feds-said-to-be-investigating-largest-medicaid-provider-in-the-u-s/
trollhattan
@Kent:
Desert. 55-gallon barrels. GPS.
Everything I know I learned from Breaking Bad. e.g., better to deal with cartels than nazi biker gangs.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: The only two seats that are definitely not going Democratic this cycle are Nebraska and Arkansas. Otherwise as far as I’m concerned we should fight for every single one of them. Even if we think there’s no chance.
Sab
@Kathleen: Everytime we purge corrupt politicians in Ohio what we end up with is so much worse.
Sab
@germy: Remember when half the country lost power in 2003 for days? Same energy company (FirstEnergy) was responsible. They didn’t trim the trees around their lines. They also had to shut down their nuclear power plants for years do to scarily poor maintenance.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
I did 11 years in/around Columbus. Can’t even get a rise out of one eyebrow.
Calouste
@Kay:
Anti-abortion is the fix the GOP pushes to the religion addicts. A cheap, nasty fix, but it always has the addicts come back for more. And since when are drug pushers not crooks?
WV Blondie
For those interested, here’s the charging document (warning: it is indeed convoluted)
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6999130/Ohio-House-complaint.pdf
And while we’re all paying attention to the corrupt politicians, appropriately, don’t forget – the root of this is corporate corruption. For instance, FirstEnergy used its front group to pay $450,000 to 15 different national “professional signature collection” companies, so they’d be conflicted out and environmental groups couldn’t hire them to help get signatures to get the referendum on the ballot.
I know lots and lots and lots more about FE’s bad practices (from a completely different scam it tried to run), but I have to think this case could be a very useful roadmap for how corporations are steamrolling our democracy.
WhatsMyNym
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend (same goes for guys with too much cash and no place to put it).
Kosh III
I’m guessing these big time white men were politely arrested, no 1am no-knock warrant, no blazing guns before the door is even properly bashed in.
Two systems of Justice, nothing to see here. move along
SuzieC
You jackals should have seen Householder’s perp walk on the NBC local news tonight. Obese fuck looked like he had been rolled out of bed and arrested by the FBI at 6:15 am. Dozens of protesters yelled and screamed at him as reporters thrust microphones into his face shouting “are you going to resign?”
SuzieC
@WV Blondie: First Energy went looking for people to bribe, according to US Attorney DeVillers. They found a receptive audience in the Householder Gang.
WV Blondie
@SuzieC: yeah, I watched the press conference and heard that.