The Beginnings of a National Scandal

The Toledo Blade nails the governor of Ohio for Coingate, and while they're at it, they go after the one-party rule in the state.

After two months of staggering revelations in the "Coingate" scandal, Ohioans now must cope with one more remarkable and disgusting example of arrogant, out-of-control, one-party rule.

In a confession stunning in its scope, the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation admitted this week that the taxpayers lost $215 million in just a few months last year in a high-risk hedge fund that went south almost as fast as the state bought in.

A memo to Gov. Bob Taft's office last October from then-BWC Director James Conrad reported that the hedge-fund manager, MDL Capital Management of Pittsburgh, adopted an investment strategy that went far beyond the bureau's established risk limits.

Only now, seven months later, is the massive loss uncovered, and yet the governor's press secretary insists that Mr. Taft never saw Mr. Conrad's e-mail, never was told about it, never talked to Mr. Conrad about it, and only learned the extent of the loss this week.

That's beyond belief, but why should the citizens of Ohio believe anything this governor or his minions utter any more?

Frankly, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to this story when it first broke back in April. Having grown up in Toledo and knowing Ohio's history of corrupt politics that goes back to the age of McKinley, I figured it was just one more story that wouldn't get much mileage in the national press. Well, thanks to the persistence of bloggers -- mainly AMERICAblog -- this story is getting legs, and it may reach further than just the Ohio statehouse...it's reaching out to the RNC and the Bush campaign of 2004. Tangentially, the engineer of the Ohio vote last fall, Kenneth Blackwell, has plans to run for governor in 2006, but the tentacles of not just the rare-coins but his own tactics in the vote count may cost him.

Ohio Democrats shouldn't count themselves as a shoo-in if the Republicans wind up in trouble; they have their own skeletons in the closet. This is Ohio, after all, and their history with some unsavory characters is well-known by the voters, as The Blade points out. But what this does illustrate all too well is that one-party rule -- no matter who is in charge -- is an invitation to disaster and public mistrust.

I've been keeping my eye on this in the background, but it's time to move it to the front and keep on it. Stay tuned.