The Tennessee Liberal

Today's front page story in the Times Free Press about the National Republican Congressional Committee's failure to pay its $20,000 in fines for breaking election law is quite amazing.

It doesn't really get tons more damning than this. To wit:

"Twenty thousand dollars may not seem like a lot of money for a multimillion-dollar campaign organization, but it's impossible to lose track of," said Craig Varoga, a columnist for Campaigns & Elections magazine and a Houston-based Democratic political consultant.

Carl Forti spokesman for the congressional committee, said Tuesday that his group was researching the matter, and he could not comment yet.

What on earth is there to research? Republicans are shafting Tennesseans like you and me because they don't feel a need to pay fines for breaking the law.

But, maybe you say they didn't know the fines were there, that an organization busy saving the world from liberals might just not know they owe a fine to the citizens of Tennessee. Perhaps more damning analysis will clear that up:

The NRCC's two unpaid fines, each for $10,000, stem from its failure to file disclosure reports for both the second and third quarters in 2002, according to records. In the two years before that, the NRCC was fined four times for a total of $4,025. The organization paid those fines, records show.

Mr. Varoga said it appeared the National Republican Congressional Committee stopped paying the fines when they became too large.

"The curious thing about this is they paid the smaller fines, which was an obvious indication they were paying attention at the time," he said.

This is ridiculous. I can't understate the point enough: the Republican party broke the law. They were fined for breaking the law. They still have not paid that fine, three years later.

Would you trust this party with your own budget? With your family's? How about with your country's?