The American Spectator

Is it just the FEC or the public’s lack of interest that allows this kind of scam?

At the local level — City Council in my little town — the best fun I ever had was bird-dogging one council member who had every union, big chain hotel, any business worth a donation — all beholden to her for favors in local legislation.

The crowning insult of her fraudulent re-election campaign was when she filed an expense of $200 for a victory party at a grateful hotel. Open Bar pouring champagne, Stoly, Maker’s Mark. Live Band. Endless tables of smoked salmon, pate, hot and cold buffet — it was the talk of the town.

Common sense and experience told me I could not take my husband and two teenage grandsons to Outback for two hundred bucks. So I went over to the hotel, pretended I was planning a wedding reception and asked for an estimate, food, bar and band. The quoted tab was in the thousands. I primly thanked the manager, remarking that I had hoped for something along the lines of $200 political celebration. I imagine he was on the phone to the Council person before I was out of the lobby.

A friend and I went to City Hall and checked out all her expense filings. What a wondrous fairy tale it was. Undervalued “in kind” donations, A tapestry of inexplicable “errors.” We burnt up the copy machine getting evidence and took our findings to Sacramento.

Months went by. We kept returning to City Hall to check this Council member’s files. Finally! An amended filing — coming a little closer to the actual cost and painfully coughed up by the cheapskate miscreant. Said member hoped it would never come to light that the famous $200 party investigated by two citizens, that it would never end with the state making her pony up. So I publicly thanked her for correcting her $200 “error,” to the roars of laughter of those assembled. No one had ever stood up to her before.

If all citizens kept watch on local government officials, perhaps they would not view “public service” as the gravy train it has become.

I would say that is keeping them honest. But you really can’t keep a politician honest. Most have a chicken-thief mentality to start with. Our trips to Sacramento, poring over cases of fraudulent campaign filings confirmed that.

If Obama never works another day in his life, he can live off his ill gotten gains. He had an excellent training ground as community organizer in Chicago.

p>As for Obama’s credit card donations — how many do you think were made on nearly maxed out cards that have now been turned over to credit companies for collection. br> Who ultimately pays for them? br> — Diane Smith /p>

We all remember the quid pro quo to China from the Clintons. Communist China gave him millions for his campaign and he gave them the Cray Supercomputer. That small gift has moved China from an 18th century scientific country to one that routinely demonstrates the ability to black out our satellites. That small gift has enabled China to accomplish in a decade what it took the western world 60 years to accomplish: sophisticated scientific calculations to launch a space program.