Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Settling Up Your Debts

South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov Ken Ard has squared away his 100 plus ethics violations, apparently you can do that.

South Carolina Lt. Governor Ken Ard (R) has settled his 107 ethics violations with the State Ethics Commission, and agreed to pay a $48,400 fine, cover the cost of the investigation, and reimburse his campaign for $12,121 in illegal expenditures.

Among those expenditures, Corey Hutchins of the South Carolina Free Times reports, was Ard's wife's phone bill and more than $3000 at Best Buy for a "Playstation 3, a flat-screen TV, an iPod Touch 8G, and two 3G iPads." Ard initially claimed the purchases were "computer equip" for "campaign and office-related purposes."

Question, if he was skeeving his campaign fund for 12 grand, where'd he get the money for the $48,000 fine?

Ard also told ethics investigators that the $2,543 he spent to take his family to Washington, D.C. was for a visit to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) -- a meeting Graham's office said never took place.

"I'll be honest, I'm not really good at dotting i's and crossing t's, but I've got a lot -- a lot -- of money in here and I'm certainly not spending any money on my own personal behalf," Ard told the Free Times back in January. "I've got a vast amount of my personal wealth tied up in this campaign and I'm just trying to recoup as much of that as I can."

As part of the settlement Ard admitted to 38 of the illegal expenditures and was given a public reprimand.

IOKIYAR.  A Democrat who took campaign funds for their own personal use would of course be forced to resign, yes?  After all, Nikki Haley promised a transparent and accountable government, right?  Stealing a couple thou for Playstations and flat screens?  That's just "dotting i's and crossing t's."

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