Could the missing National Republican Congressional Committee's funds have been given to SBVT ads

[karynnj]

Here is the NYT article that does NOT say that - but it does give information that could lead to drawing that conclusion:

Here are the 2 paragraphs that do it (one is middle article, the other at the end.

"He said an investigation with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers had “found a pattern in which Mr. Ward would transfer funds by wire out of the N.R.C.C. to outside committees.” From those outside committees, Mr. Kelner said, money was then transferred to “personal and business accounts of Mr. Ward.

But what business was Ward in - the ONLY one mentioned was:

"Mr. Ward was named treasurer of the national Republican committee in 2003 after serving for several years as an assistant treasurer. He had also been a partner in a political consulting firm, Political Compliance Services, that worked in 2004 on behalf of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group behind advertisements attacking the military record of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee."

The Republican quoted at the end of the story then bemoans the fact that these wired transactions were allowed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14repubs.html?_r=1&ref=washington&oref=slogin

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Am I seeing something that is not there? What this means is that the Republican party itself was linked to that smear campaign. That group is NOT just against John Kerry. Had there been another candidate, they would have smeared him. (With Kerry it was actually harder - they attacked something where the official record was 100% behind John Kerry.) If the transfer was to that company, this was an amazingly bold campaign finance violation on the part of the RCC.

[Lost4words]

1. why has no one taken the SBVT to task?

out them, locate them, GET them.

[Kingofalldems]

2. GOP still the same as they were during Watergate

Anything is possible.

[karynnj]

3. I forgot about that - and the coverup of that was what

led some to be convicted and sent to jail.