Am I the only one who sees these as chickenshit charges?

Gov. Bob Taft was charged with four ethics violations Wednesday for failing to report dozens of gifts that included dinners, golf games and professional hockey tickets, deepening a scandal that has rocked Ohio's Republican Party.

Taft, a Republican and member of a distinguished U.S. political family, becomes the first governor in Ohio history to be charged with a crime. The charges are also an embarrassment for a politician who has pushed for high ethical standards in his office.

Taft, could be fined $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail on each count if convicted, though time behind bars was considered unlikely.

Taft will respond publicly on Thursday and is not planning to resign, spokesman Mark Rickel said. Prosecutors said they expected the governor to appear in court Thursday but declined to say whether a plea agreement was in the works.

The gifts were worth about $5,800 and given over four years, prosecutors said. Taft earlier had revealed that he failed to report some outings but said the omissions were accidental.

Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said the gifts included two golf outings worth $100 each paid for by embattled coin dealer Tom Noe. Noe is a Republican fundraiser whose $50 million investment of state money in rare coins launched the scandal that led to Taft's revelation that he failed to list golf outings on financial disclosure forms.

State law requires officeholders to report all gifts worth more than $75 if the donor wasn't reimbursed.

O'Brien said the gifts also included meals and tickets for a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game.

If this is what passes for “corruption” and “unethical conduct” in Ohio, then I think the laws are overly stringent. According to other reports I’ve seen, some of the gifts, meals, and outings come from long-time friends and associates. Given current prices for a meal at an up-scale restaurant, or fees for a round of golf, it is virtually impossible not to cross that threshold in the course of spending time with someone in a purely casual capacity. I took a friend to see the Houston Texans last weekend because my wife was unable to use her ticket. By the time I bought his ticket (and we were in the cheap seats), paid for parking, and grabbed a drink and a bite to eat, we were pushing that $75.00 figure. If such normal human interaction is banned under the law, then the law is an ass.

UPDATE: Taft pleads no contest, and is fined for the offenses.

Posted by: Greg at 01:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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