{"id":7542,"date":"2006-05-30T10:49:19","date_gmt":"2006-05-30T14:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7542"},"modified":"2006-05-30T10:49:19","modified_gmt":"2006-05-30T14:49:19","slug":"those-who-can-commit-crimes-do-those-who-get-caught-teach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/those-who-can-commit-crimes-do-those-who-get-caught-teach\/","title":{"rendered":"Those who can commit crimes, do; those who get caught, teach"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the [tag]New Hampshire[\/tag] [tag]phone-jamming[\/tag] [tag]scandal[\/tag], [tag]Charles McGee[\/tag], the former executive director of the state [tag]Republican Party[\/tag], pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months in jail for his part in the scheme to have a telemarketer to tie up Democratic and union phone lines in 2002. Now that he’s served his time, where does he go? Where else? To a campaign school to help train Republican candidates<\/a> on how to win.<\/p>\n

[McGee is] back at his old job with a Republican political marketing firm, Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., and will be helping out at the firm’s “GOP [tag]campaign school[\/tag]” for candidates.<\/p>\n

Richard Pease, the firm’s co-president, said that McGee would be available to advise candidates at the two-day event, planned for next weekend in Manchester, N.H. McGee’s role at the school was reported Thursday by the New Hampshire Union Leader.<\/p>\n

“Chuck will work with the candidates in any way they want,” Pease said. “If they want his advice, if they want his . . . experience, it’s there for them to take or leave.”<\/p>\n

Pease said he had no problem with McGee, who is a vice president in the firm, returning to advise politicians. “He made a mistake. He admitted to it. He served his time,” Pease said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, he did, and I certainly don’t begrudge anyone who tries to put their life back together after getting out of jail. But the circumstances here are disconcerting.<\/p>\n

When it comes to James Tobin, who the regional chairman of Bush’s presidential campaign, the mastermind of this little scheme, the Republicans paid his legal bills. When it comes to McGee, they’re not only willing to pay him again — as opposed to, say, distancing themselves from his felonious past — they invite him to teach others about political campaigning.<\/p>\n

I’ll give them one thing: this takes chutzpah. Dems might feel embarrassed about associating with someone who went to jail for orchestrating a scheme to criminally interfere with an election process. Republicans — the law-and-order party — bring them right back into the fold, regardless of appearances. It’s impressive, in a depressing kind of way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the [tag]New Hampshire[\/tag] [tag]phone-jamming[\/tag] [tag]scandal[\/tag], [tag]Charles McGee[\/tag], the former executive director of the state [tag]Republican Party[\/tag], pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served seven months in jail for his part in the scheme to have a telemarketer to tie up Democratic and union phone lines in 2002. Now that he’s served his time, where does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}