I’ve written several times about the fact that grifters have a natural home in the Republican party. There are grifter politicians, like Rick Santorum, who is always hopelessly running for president, thereby keeping his brand alive for those lucrative red meat speaking fees, and there are grifter political operatives, who siphon money away from the causes they allegedly promote into their own pockets, thereby doing our side a favor by seriously diluting the effectiveness of every dime contributed by the rubes, and that includes the billionaires, whose money is siphoned into the pockets of high priced grifters like Karl Rove. More thoughts on the subject, here, here and here.
So, I was pleased to read today that we in Connecticut have our grifters too. (I know I should have known about this already, but truth to tell, I’m not that interested in Connecticut politics):
Former House Republican Chief of Staff George Gallo was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison Thursday in federal court in Hartford for steering Republican candidates to a direct mail company in Florida in exchange for kickbacks.
The federal government told the court that from 2008 to December 2013, Direct Mail Systems Inc. of Clearwater, Fla. paid Gallo, of East Hampton, $117,617 in exchange for steering candidates to their firm.
Federal prosecutors asked the court to sentence Gallo, a first-time offender, to 15 months. But although U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa L. Bryant did sentence Gallo to about five months less than the federal government requested, she said she imposed prison time to stem the tide of political corruption in Connecticut. She said Gallo only offered a “tepid” level of responsibility for his actions.
via CT News Junkie
That’s $117,000 that state Republicans were unable to spend trying to get themselves elected, so on behalf of all Democrats I would like to thank Mr. Gallo, and I’d really suggest that the Democratic party should send him a going away present of some sort.
Post a Comment