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June 10, 2005

God's Own Party of Plausible Deniability

The Toledo Blade maintains their razor-edge on Ohio's coingate scandal:

Taft says he was never told; 'Something very wrong' with BWC investments, he admits

James Conrad, the bureau’s administrator-CEO, detailed the investment loss by Pittsburgh-based MDL Capital Management in an Oct. 26, 2004, e-mail to Taft aide James Samuel.

But Mr. Taft yesterday said he wasn’t told about the e-mail and didn’t know the extent of the loss until this week.

There also are no references to MDL in the weekly reports that Mr. Conrad sent to the governor, said Mr. Taft’s press secretary, Mark Rickel.

“Should I have been told? Obviously,’’ said Mr. Taft. “Should the administrator of the bureau informed me directly, personally? I think so. I think that was his obligation; $200 million is a huge amount of money to lose.”

On Tuesday, state officials admitted that the MDL hedge fund the bureau had invested in had lost $215 million in just a few months last year.

“Clearly there was something very wrong with the investment management at the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation,” Governor Taft said during a 19-minute question-and-answer session with reporters. “I don’t think we know yet everything that went wrong with respect to that part of the bureau.”

That pension fund money and those millions of dollars worth of rare coins didn't just grow legs and walk out.

Okay, once I worked with this blonde receptionist, right? Nice girl; friendly, attractive; not the brightest bulb, though. One day she came in with a different car, and when asked what happened to her Camaro, she said, "It totaled."

Not "I totaled it." So, in the spirit of the Simpsons "I didn't do it" kid and the long-standing Republican mantra of "personal responsibility", Gov. Taft's defense is apparently "It totaled." Translation: "Shit happens!" Or write your own caption...

Posted by Jeff at June 10, 2005 10:58 AM