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Money money money money . . .

The scandal swirling about the Ohio Bureau of Worker Compensation's rare-coin investment fund managed by a GOP big-wig campaign contributor continues to grow. And grow . . . and grow. Fortunately, Joe over at John Aravosis' AmericaBlog is stuck like duck tape to the story, so if I forget to check the Toledo Blade* for the latest, I know I can catch up over there.

Yesterday Joe informed us that State Senator Marc Dann (D-Youngstown) has joined the Blade in asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order the state to disclose details of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensaton rare-coin hedge fund, managed by GOP fundraiser/contributor Tom Noe of Toledo.

Speaking about his decision, Dunn said, "It's a sad day when a member of the Ohio General Assembly is forced to file a lawsuit to obtain an inventory and accounting of money held in trust by the state for injured workers and their employers."

Lawyers for the workers comp bureau say that details about the fund are protected under "trade secret" laws.

Unfortunately for Republicans, fund manager Noe, who has contributed to the campaigns of numerous GOP luminaries including Governor Taft and US Senator George Voinovich and served as a regional campaign president for Bush/Cheney04, has also donated to and campaigned for five Ohio Supreme Court judges, all of whom have recused themselves from hearing Dann and the Blade's claims.

This means Justice Alice Resnick, the Court's only Democrat and the subject of Chamber of Commerce-funded  campaign smears in the 2000 race, will be acting chief justice in the coin cases. It will also be her responsibility to assign judges from state appellate courts to replace the recused justices and join her in hearing the suits.

Just today, in a story announcing that SOS Blackwell is investigating Noe's campaign contributions independently of a similar FBI probe, the Blade reported that Paul Pfeiffer is one Supreme Court justice who has not received campaign contributions from Noe since 1990, two years before he was elected to the bench.

Here's an excerpt from today's article to demonstrate how real investigative reporting is done:

Justice Pfeifer, a Republican who was first elected to the court in 1992, has not received any contributions from Mr. Noe during his bids for the high court. Justice Pfeifer ran unopposed last year to a third six-year term.

“I’m not hired to jump off of cases. I’m hired to stay on them,” he said.

Justice Pfeifer said he never had recused himself from a case because a party had contributed to one of his campaigns.

“My view is that alone would never be a reason to get out. Because if you start down that road, there is no stopping point. Plus, before you picked up a pile of briefs, you would have to have someone do a contribution check. I would feel tied in knots if that were the criteria,” he said.

Justice Pfeifer said he met Mr. Noe several years ago when Jim Brennan was chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party. He said he phoned Mrs. Noe either in 2003 or 2004 when he noticed that his name had been left off a list of GOP officeholders expected to attend a political event.

“She assured me it was an oversight,” said Justice Pfeifer, whose votes siding with Democratic justices and trial lawyers has angered some Republicans.

Since Democrats are accusing Republicans of dragging their heels on the story and have called for the workers comp bureau administrator to resign, naturally -- especially since the state's heel-dragging auditor and attorney general are both running in the Republican gubernatorial primary next year -- Republicans have begun to counter-attack.

Four Ohio business lobbies -- including the Chamber of Commerce responsible for the campaign smears on Justice Resnick -- have now written Governor Taft a letter criticizing Blackwell nemisis Theresa Fedor and a colleague for calling on the workers comp administrator to resign.

State Senator Fedor, who represents the Toledo area at the heart of Coe's operations, is sticking to her guns. During the post-election recount I had the good fortune to see Senator Fedor speak. She looks like the former school teacher she is and talks the firm, straight talk teachers speak. Just as she dogged SOS Blackwell from his earliest efforts to foist Diebold machines on Ohio voters, she'll stick to Coe's coin-fraud trail now.

And tenacity like Fedor's is what it's going to take, because trying to uncover the truth of Coe's rare-coin deals with the state is turning into a very big battle -- of the Republican-ugliest kind . . .

*The Toledo Blade is that old-fashioned thing, a regional newspaper that actually investigates and reports real news. Last year it won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for "Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths" a series about atrosities committed in Vietnam by the elite US fighting unit, Tiger Force. The Blade's coverage of the GOP coin-fund scandal reflects the same passionate commitment to investigative journalism. If you want to read another potential Pulitzer in the making, go here and scroll down for a list of the Blade's related articles so far.

(Tweaked 5/19/05: I started this last night, had a heck of a time getting links, proofing, etc., right, so went back in and cleaned up a few things.)

Money money money money . . .

The scandal swirling about the Ohio Bureau of Worker Compensation's rare-coin investment fund managed by a GOP big-wig campaign contributor continues to grow. And grow . . . and grow. Fortunately, Joe over at John Aravosis' AmericaBlog is stuck like duck tape to the story, so if I forget to check the Toledo Blade* for the latest, I know I can catch up over there.

Yesterday Joe informed us that State Senator Marc Dann (D-Youngstown) has joined the Blade in asking the Ohio Supreme Court to order the state to disclose details of the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensaton rare-coin hedge fund, managed by GOP fundraiser/contributor Tom Noe of Toledo.

Speaking about his decision, Dunn said, "It's a sad day when a member of the Ohio General Assembly is forced to file a lawsuit to obtain an inventory and accounting of money held in trust by the state for injured workers and their employers."

Lawyers for the workers comp bureau say that details about the fund are protected under "trade secret" laws.

Unfortunately for Republicans, fund manager Noe, who has contributed to the campaigns of numerous GOP luminaries including Governor Taft and US Senator George Voinovich and served as a regional campaign president for Bush/Cheney04, has also donated to and campaigned for five Ohio Supreme Court judges, all of whom have recused themselves from hearing Dann and the Blade's claims.

This means Justice Alice Resnick, the Court's only Democrat and the subject of Chamber of Commerce-funded  campaign smears in the 2000 race, will be acting chief justice in the coin cases. It will also be her responsibility to assign judges from state appellate courts to replace the recused justices and join her in hearing the suits.

Just today, in a story announcing that SOS Blackwell is investigating Noe's campaign contributions independently of a similar FBI probe, the Blade reported that Paul Pfeiffer is one Supreme Court justice who has not received campaign contributions from Noe since 1990, two years before he was elected to the bench.

Here's an excerpt from today's article to demonstrate how real investigative reporting is done:

Justice Pfeifer, a Republican who was first elected to the court in 1992, has not received any contributions from Mr. Noe during his bids for the high court. Justice Pfeifer ran unopposed last year to a third six-year term.

“I’m not hired to jump off of cases. I’m hired to stay on them,” he said.

Justice Pfeifer said he never had recused himself from a case because a party had contributed to one of his campaigns.

“My view is that alone would never be a reason to get out. Because if you start down that road, there is no stopping point. Plus, before you picked up a pile of briefs, you would have to have someone do a contribution check. I would feel tied in knots if that were the criteria,” he said.

Justice Pfeifer said he met Mr. Noe several years ago when Jim Brennan was chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party. He said he phoned Mrs. Noe either in 2003 or 2004 when he noticed that his name had been left off a list of GOP officeholders expected to attend a political event.

“She assured me it was an oversight,” said Justice Pfeifer, whose votes siding with Democratic justices and trial lawyers has angered some Republicans.

Since Democrats are accusing Republicans of dragging their heels on the story and have called for the workers comp bureau administrator to resign, naturally -- especially since the state's heel-dragging auditor and attorney general are both running in the Republican gubernatorial primary next year -- Republicans have begun to counter-attack.

Four Ohio business lobbies -- including the Chamber of Commerce responsible for the campaign smears on Justice Resnick -- have now written Governor Taft a letter criticizing Blackwell nemisis Theresa Fedor and a colleague for calling on the workers comp administrator to resign.

State Senator Fedor, who represents the Toledo area at the heart of Coe's operations, is sticking to her guns. During the post-election recount I had the good fortune to see Senator Fedor speak. She looks like the former school teacher she is and talks the firm, straight talk teachers speak. Just as she dogged SOS Blackwell from his earliest efforts to foist Diebold machines on Ohio voters, she'll stick to Coe's coin-fraud trail now.

And tenacity like Fedor's is what it's going to take, because trying to uncover the truth of Coe's rare-coin deals with the state is turning into a very big battle -- of the Republican-ugliest kind . . .

*The Toledo Blade is that old-fashioned thing, a regional newspaper that actually investigates and reports real news. Last year it won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for "Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths" a series about atrosities committed in Vietnam by the elite US fighting unit, Tiger Force. The Blade's coverage of the GOP coin-fund scandal reflects the same passionate commitment to investigative journalism. If you want to read another potential Pulitzer in the making, go here and scroll down for a list of the Blade's related articles so far.

(Tweaked 5/19/05: I started this last night, had a heck of a time getting links, proofing, etc., right, so went back in and cleaned up a few things.)