Yesterday I mentioned that a coalition of campaign-finance watchdogs had issued a press release in which they called on Deputy Attorney General James Comey to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate an illegal use of funds by John Ashcroft in his 2000 Senate reelection bid. Today the Washington Post picks up the story and throws in a bonus tidbit:
Another aspect of the case is the role of Jack Oliver, now deputy finance chairman of the Bush-Cheney ’04 reelection committee. Oliver, who was executive director of Ashcroft’s PAC, was deposed by FEC investigators last February because his signature appears with Ashcroft’s on a controversial work product agreement under which ownership of the mailing list was transferred to the then-senator, according to documents released in December by the FEC.
The mailing list is a list of donors that was shared by Ashcroft’s Senate campaign and his Spirit of America PAC, which was formed to explore a Presidential bid. Money derived from renting that list was given by Spirit of America to Ashcroft 2000, in violation of limits on such funds.
All I really have to add to this is to ask: Is the accompanying picture scary or what? Feel free to caption it if you’ve got the mojo for that sort of thing.
Look closely at the picture. Notice the oval sign in the background. Each department of government has a similar blue oval sign they place behind the speaker at press conferences. Every department’s sign has a flat, unembellished white border EXCEPT the DoJ, it has a white rope border. Whenever I see it, I think to myself, “that’s about the right weight of rope for a hanging.”
Or for scary pix, how about this?
I believe the appropriate caption for the one you posted, Kuff, is:
“John Ashcroft ponders the concept of foreplay.”