The Washington State Democratic Party is an opium den of corruption
UPDATE: Sorry, the above link requires registration. For the registration-challenged:
Wash. Dems face massive fines for inaccurate reports
By ROBERT MAK / KING 5 NewsA disillusioned Democrat reader, who likes the party's philosophy but not its methods e-mails:
SEATTLE - Washington state’s Democratic party could face thousands of dollars in fines for failing to file accurate reports during the 2004 campaign.
...
More than $1 million of Democratic expenditures and contributions weren't properly reported by the time voters went to the polls."The reports were substantially out of compliance because they weren't complete and accurate," Rippie said.
The Chairman of the state Democratic party Paul Berendt sent a letter to the PDC saying: "I am, of course, deeply disappointed and concerned...my staff did not alert me to the problem...Had I known, I would have acted aggressively to correct this matter."
The next step could be penalties levied by the commission and they could be severe.
During the 2000 campaign the PDC fined state democrats $250,000 for failing to disclose information. As part of that settlement $100,000 of that fine was suspended as long as Democrats avoided similar problems for five years.
Now, Democrats may have to pay up with the potential for additional penalties.
"We will hold them to their agreements and that the expectation from the public that they report accurately and fully and timely will be enforced," Rippie said.
In his letter to the PDC, Berendt said he has replaced the treasurer who was in charge of filing reports and he has brought in more people to oversee the party's accounting.
We were late in filing reports in 2000, as well.Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 02, 2005 12:04 AM | Email ThisIn 2000, Paul blamed his office treasurer, whom he said he replaced.
In 2004, Paul blamed his office treasurer, whom he said he replaced.
See the pattern?
The deal is, it is strategically advantageous for you folks not to know
what we folks are up to when election day draws near. So, reports get filed late. A few fines after the fact are the cost of doing business.The vapors are had, apologies are tendered, staff are allegedly replaced.
And then the whole charade is readied for 2006 and 2008.
The new AGs iniatives to making government and the political process more transparent will need an example in-action, looks like the Dems are perfect candidates :0)
Posted by: CR ACTIVIST on March 2, 2005 12:24 AMSo, Stephan, are you going to review the list of donors to see how many of them have been died before their contribution?
I would think that by this time, the Democrats would be better at doctoring their books...or maybe they should just try honesty. It wouldn't take as long to get the story straight.
Posted by: Brian on March 2, 2005 12:27 AMThis from the same people who tell us the election is a model for the rest of the country!
More dishonesty and cover ups!
I would urge our AG not to settle and make them pay the maximum fines. That may be the only way to get through to them.
Posted by: Joe on March 2, 2005 01:17 AMSixty percent of the state is corrupt?
I see you neglected to ever reference the Tom Delay charges even though they were in the media for weeks.
What about Rossi's mentor who served time in jail.
Are you being selective in your posts?
Posted by: Erik on March 2, 2005 01:33 AMThe ends always justify the means.
The ends always justify the means.
The ends always justify the means.
They live in this relativistic world where there is no right and wrong, only the "noble" goals that they have established and will achieve at any cost.
Posted by: Jeff B. on March 2, 2005 01:35 AMMinor thing but I think it is the "Democrat" party not the "Democratic" party!!
Posted by: Norm on March 2, 2005 05:58 AMThe penalties could be stiff because this is not a first offense. The Democratic party is already stretched thin with the governor's recount and the growing legal bills.
The (Democratic) mistake was with Robert Makic, ahh Mac, yes Mak
Posted by: Spel Chec on March 2, 2005 06:59 AMHey Erik, are you being selective about your targetting of Republicans?
Posted by: bmvaughn on March 2, 2005 07:42 AM“Corruption” they cried.
The force was multiplied as the roar grew in sound and fury. Years of despair disappeared in an instant. The last lonely sparks in the humans’ souls had turned to rage. No earthly force would stop this wave.
The heartless ghouls never heard the sounds.
The post refereneces the Washington State Democratic Party, not democrats.
"Are you being selective in your posts?"
Is the Seattle P-I selective in what it prints? Every publisher is selective in deciding what to post. They decide what they want to communicate to their readers and publish accordingly.
That being said, Sound Politics is a commentary, they cannot be held to the same level of criticism as news reporting. A commentary, in whichever medium, chooses what it want to focus on. It does not have to be fair and balanced. It expresses the viewpoints of its author.
The advantage of blogs is that they allow readers to respond to the commentary, even people like Erik.
Posted by: north clark county on March 2, 2005 07:57 AM wow it must be a terrible place to live
if that many of us are corrupt.yeah
right. Don't even try to compare rossi to
these people.I know dino rossi he is honorable
decent man.So before you start making accusations
you better be able to back it up.
Norm -- correct for sure -- except that it is democRAT
Thanks so much for all of your work in keeping us informed to a news story that the the print media is not spending any of thier ink buget on.
Erik,
Each post of yours that I read, the lower the perception of your IQ becomes more and more obivious. Perhaps you should take the time to engage your brain before you allow your fingers to touch the keyboard.
Posted by: Bud on March 2, 2005 08:03 AMThanks so much for all of your work in keeping us informed to a news story that the the print media is not spending any of thier ink buget on.
Erik,
Each post of yours that I read, the lower the perception of your IQ becomes more and more obivious. Perhaps you should take the time to engage your brain before you allow your fingers to touch the keyboard.
Posted by: Bud on March 2, 2005 08:03 AMSo Paul Berendt, who claims to know everything there is to know about the electoral process, now falls back on the ignorance defense. How typical.
Since you noted that the use of "opium den" was a metaphor, you should be smart enough to recognize that you cannot subsequently say the literal use of it would be the Limbaugh household since the drug he used was not opium.
If you want to be pedantic be correct.
Posted by: Not a Yank on March 2, 2005 08:13 AMErik wrote:
"Are you being selective in your posts?"
Erik, this is a battle not worth fighting. If you hadn't figured out that this is essentially a Republican blog before your first post, you certainly have figured it out by now. It's actually somewhat more polite to us than many of the Democrat blogs are to Republicans.
Smile politely and ignore the "all Democrats are evil" topics. Or, read them to find out which posters are convinced that all Democrats should be shot at birth. Those people can then be ignored, as anything you say will be taken as proof that you are personally evil and hate our country.
As to the basic story, I've been trying to pull up the reference page for about twenty minutes now. My Democrat computer can't seem to find it. Nor are there other links to it in Google, using the keywords "Washington Democrat funding corruption". I even tryed "Washington opium den", even though I doubted that King5 would have used those rather inflammatory terms.
I believe that the story was there, as Mr. Sharkansky has been an honest reporter (even if our views differ), but is there a better link? If my party is pulling shennanigans with the funding, I'd like to know the details. Not that your complete post of "The Washington State Democratic Party is an opium den of corruption" could possibly be said to be lacking in anything that many posters here want to hear. (While I don't partake of the stuff, I'm rather offended that they didn't even offer any to me.)
How else can I try to hold my party leaders accountable?
Posted by: John Barelli on March 2, 2005 08:24 AMThere is plenty of corruption to go around....and as is typical, this outlet chooses only to show one side.
The link provided by Mr. Sharkansky doesn't appear to work without registration, which most bloggers would note in the body of the post. Further as is pointed out by John Barrelli, this story seems oddly absent from other Seattle news outlets.
More contrived tempests in a teapot by SP. (sigh)
Carla@preemptivekarma
Posted by: carla on March 2, 2005 08:32 AMWhen actual evidence comes through that the Democratic Party is not the shining angel of human compassion and integrity that you think they are, you instead turn to attack the integrity of other genuine folk like Dino Rossi. You can't possibly accept the facts as they are.
I encourage the Democrats to keep doing this, because I hope to see the end of the Democrat machinery in this state and the nation. There is no better way to do that than to have themselves show themselves for who they really are: pompous, racist, hate-filled, close-minded lunatics. And these aren't just names - this is the truth based on observations.
Posted by: JonathanGardner on March 2, 2005 08:43 AMYeah, but that is the whole point to the website. It's a Republican leaning website; they don't have to pretend not to be partisan. As someone who leans left, I find the right leaning sites more interesting to read. I like that they allow dissent. Try posting a differing opinion on freerepublic or DU.
Posted by: CandrewB on March 2, 2005 08:45 AMI regret that this has happened, and that we have violated the trust of our party. I will make sure that in the future it won't happen again, and I will pay all fines as required by law.
Heck, he'd probably step down to get the tarnish off of the party.
Instead, Paul Berendt says this:
It's not my fault - no one told me. I fired the Treasurer so we'll be okay. Besides, it's really not that important.
Posted by: JonathanGardner on March 2, 2005 08:45 AMStill, is there another reference? I finally got Google to come up with a link (that I still can't get to) for the original story, but I didn't see anything about it in today's Tacoma News Tribune, and I have looked for other sources.
I would really like to know the details, as many of the posts here would read much the same if it were a matter of millions or of someone getting an extra soda by mistake from the vending machine.
If the former, then I'll certainly agree that heads need to roll and will do what I can to make that happen. If the latter, I'll think "tsk, tsk" in the direction of Mr. Berendt.
What will it take to get the federales involved? Corruption and quadruple-speak by elections officials isn't enough. This repeated failure by the Democrat Party probably won't be enough either.
Frustrated,
Posted by: SnoCo Voter on March 2, 2005 09:18 AMNo illegal donations, no illegal spending, but the party was late in reporting the sources. Democrats will be annoyed, as this will likely trigger some fines because of easily correctable problems in reporting. We've got to get a better treasurer, as our last one screwed up. Hmmm. Looks like we are. Seems like an appropriate response to me.
Essentially, the information was nothing that anyone would have cared about had it been reported on time. Have I ever mentioned that quote from Will Rogers? "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat."
Republicans will point to this as evidence that "The Washington State Democratic Party is an opium den of corruption."
Sorry to bother everyone. I thought this might be something more than just another Democrat bashing exercise. (Yes, if the Republicans had done it, some Democrat blogs would be posting things that sound just like this blog.) My bad. Have fun, guys.
Posted by: John Barelli on March 2, 2005 09:46 AMif there is nothing to hide, why file late?
Is there a way we can all get access to these report? This should be very interesting, besides the Tribes and enviro"mental"extremist who else is a contributor?
does the berent think he's cute by dismissing everything as innocent mistakes?
when they let the treasurer go (fire, terminate, ax) I wonder what govn't agency he/she will go to work for.
Follow the payroll reports on these people. Where is the gal working today, that gregoire fired for not filing her court papers?
I don't know anything about FreeRepublic, but the stated DU posting policy is that they do not want any "disruptors." The DU web site is specifically only for people who share the "progressive" point of view.
You can get banned very quickly, even if you are polite, non-inflammatory, and you keep your posts short. Moreover, they will delete your posts afterwards so that nobody is exposed to them.
You think I'm kidding? Try it. It's rather eye-opening.
Posted by: Bostonian on March 2, 2005 10:29 AMThis silly little election accounting mixup in an election that was otherwise a model. The few billion dollars in the Oil For Food scandal at the UN. The little abuse thing with the sex at the UN. Eason Jordon suggesting that our soldiers actively target journalists. The fake documents from CBS, etc. there all just tempests in the teapot.
We bring these petty little mishaps up because otherwise the Democratic Party and in general, the liberal midset are too perfect to fault, so all we can do is worry about all the little details.
When we hear "I am, of course, deeply disappointed and concerned" from Dean Logan et al, it means the truth will REALLY REALLY have come out about everything.
Posted by: Michele on March 2, 2005 10:58 AMIf Berendt had wept then I would know he really REALLY meant it.
Posted by: singer on March 2, 2005 11:36 AMThe Democrats who have integrity will soon be looking for a new party to jump to and leave the Howard Deans, Berendts, Gregoires, Ted Kennedys, the Clintons and a large # of Dems in the State Legislature to ruin the existing Democrat Party.
Posted by: KS on March 2, 2005 01:07 PMThey signed up 500,000 supporters with an Internet petition -- but Bill Clinton still got impeached. They organized 6,000 candlelight vigils worldwide -- but the U.S. still invaded Iraq. They raised $60 million from 500,000 donors to air countless ads and get out the vote in the battle-ground states -- but George Bush still whupped John Kerry. A gambler with a string of bets this bad might call it a night. But MoveOn.org just keeps doubling down.
Interesting article in Rolling Stones- Drudge Report. Give them enough rope...
Posted by: Son Of Liberty on March 2, 2005 01:21 PM