NRCC Reaps What It Sowed

26.02.2008

John Bresnahan and Patrick O'Connor in the Politico have new details today on the accounting scandal that threatens to engulf the National Republican Congressional Committee:

The accounting scandal now haunting the National Republican Congressional Committee was preceded by a series of decisions over the past decade to relax internal financial controls at the committee, according to numerous Republican sources familiar with the NRCC’s operations during those years.
Under Virginia Rep. Tom Davis and New York Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who chaired the committee from 1999 until the end of 2006, the NRCC waived rules requiring the executive committee--made up of elected leaders and rank-and-file Republican lawmakers--to sign off on expenditures exceeding $10,000, merged the various department budgets into a single account and rolled back a prohibition on committee staff earning an income from outside companies.

House Republicans can be accused of many things, but at least inconsistency isn't one of them: They adhere to the same low standards of ethics and competence in their own affairs that they expect of the federal government as a whole.

--Josh Patashnik

Posted: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:06 PM with 5 comment(s)

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davidsmith192 said:

There seems to be some consistency here with the Republican desire to roll back regulation of business.

February 26, 2008 12:33 PM

Bukharin said:

Gotta love this.

February 26, 2008 12:54 PM

nkocz said:

Ahh, so this might explain why Tom Davis decided to retire.

February 26, 2008 12:59 PM

Lespin said:

Just one darn minute! Excuse Republicans from inconsistency? Not quite.

These are the crew that ballooned pork barrel spending while shoving aside most vetting processes for local and stte project spending decisions by Congress. These are the crew that pledged tax cuts would make us all even more prosperous than under Clinton's stewardship, then turned aroudn and blamed Clinton-era economic polciiies for the record shortfalls persisting as far ahead as any green-shaded eye can see.

They have been consistent most times only when the standards for gauging them are skewed.

With this NRCC example one of occasional exceptions inconsistent with all the rest.

February 26, 2008 1:48 PM

jet said:

"House Republicans can be accused of many things, but at least inconsistency isn't one of them: They adhere to the same low standards of ethics and competence in their own affairs that they expect of the federal government as a whole."

Exactly. Republicans also pushed hard to dismantle some of the post-Depression banking and accounting reforms that led to Enron and Worldcom back in the day (sure, Clinton was pres. but the Republicans were the hardest chargers). So it's no surprise that their lack of imagination and Gecko-like greed has come back to bite them in the ass.

February 26, 2008 5:50 PM