While various liberal bloggers + Keith Olberman and Robert Kennedy, Jr. have been trying to convince us that a massive vote stealing scheme (with Democrats & UAW officials in on it) delivered Ohio to George W. Bush in 2004, today’s Ohio papers bring news of a real scandal that really might have made the difference in Ohio.
Shouldn’t this be news outside of Ohio?
Less than a week before the 2004 presidential election, Jim Conrad, then head of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, took steps to ensure that a $215 million investment loss in an offshore hedge-fund would not become public …
“A day earlier, Mr. Conrad sent an e-mail to James Samuel, a former bureau official who was Gov. Bob Taft’s executive assistant for business and industry, about how MDL Capital Management was in danger of collapsing, which he wrote would be "likely to make national news."…
In a motion filed last month requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed, attorneys representing Mark D. Lay of MDL Capital Management accused state officials of "covering up the bureau’s investments and investment losses in 2004 just before a presidential election."
"State officials have left little doubt that the timing and substance of their public disclosures, as well as their entire litigation strategy, have been manipulated and planned for political purposes," attorneys for Mr. Lay and MDL wrote in the motion. Eric Kuwana, a Washington attorney representing Mr. Lay, declined to elaborate on the allegation of a cover-up.
Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said last week that if the MDL losses had been revealed in October, 2004, it "would have been national news" and would have had a significant impact in Ohio, where 120,000 votes separated President Bush and John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.
"This had to do with the election of a president and obviously the facts are that Conrad and the rest of his group were willing participants in a widespread conspiracy in the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation," Mr. Redfern said.