..."she should be prosecuted," according to Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), a Washington-based liberal watchdog group.
According to Talking Points Memo,
Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell allegedly used more than $20,000 in campaign funds to pay her rent and other personal expenses, according to a complaint filed Monday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics [CREW] in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog group.
With guns blazin', Sloan says that,
Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook she should be prosecute...Ms. O'Donnell has spent years embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses. Republicans and Democrats don't agree on much these days, but both sides should agree on one point: thieves belong in jail not the United States Senate.
Meanwhile, as TPM points out, O'Donnell's lawyer struck back, calling CREW a "left-wing front group" funded by, who else, George Soros. Speaking to the Christian Science Monitor, Cleta Mitchell, O'Donnell's attorney, says, "If Melanie Sloan wants to deny that, you tell Melanie Sloan to reveal her donors...She is not a neutral arbiter of ethics."
The CSM reports:
In a March interview with The News Journal of Wilmington, O'Donnell acknowledged using campaign funds to pay half the rent at her current town home and said it was legal because of the home's dual purpose as a campaign headquarters.
O'Donnell essentially used her campaign's bank card as her personal ATM, CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said, and the improper spending likely would have gone unnoticed if not for her surprise victory in last week's primary.
CREW, which describes itself as nonpartisan but is undoubtedly liberal, has filed a complaint against O'Donnell with the Federal Elections Committee and has "sent a letter to Delaware U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss asking for a criminal investigation of O'Donnell."
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
"...thieves belong in jail or the United States Senate."
Jul '10
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
Ooh. More Pageviews.
You and Mike Murphy should get together and go bowling.
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
ha! touche, Jimmy.
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Michael...I think you and I, and Mike Murphy if he's around, should get together and go bowling. We'd all have a lot to talk about--and it would be fun!
Michael Tee: Ooh. More Pageviews.
You and Mike Murphy should get together and go bowling. · Sep 22 at 7:34am
Jul '10
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
We'd have such little overlap with me being a conservative and all. :)
May '10
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
Criminals should be held accountable, of course. I have no opinion on O'Donnell.
But I'm always saddened when courts are even peripherally involved in campaigns. Does anything, aside from public sentiment, prevent or discourage lawsuits launched during campaigns to smear candidates? Are courts being involved in elections any more often today than in the past?
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
That's a good question Aaron. I don't know. My hunch, though, is that the courts are more involved now than they were in the past simply because elections seem to be so much more divisive and combative these days--and the courts are an arena for contestants to fight it out.
Jul '10
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
Worth a look and a link!
Jul '10
Re: Melanie Sloan: "Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook..."
Think it was Teddy Roosevelt who quipped "When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'guilty'."
Expect this rent story to have long legs – but the military not receiving their ballots in time to vote; registration irregularities in Texas (and points north, east and west); etc.: Move along folks, nothing to see here.