The Workday Liberal

Reporter Gary Wright of the Charlotte Observer reports on the indictment of Sam Curry. Mr. Curry was once a U.S. attorney, a Superior Court Judge and former head of the North Carolina Republican party. The story says that this character was "a protege of former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms".

Mr Curry, being a good Republican, is so opposed to rich people paying taxes that he set up a criminal scheme to help them avoid the evil tax man. Reading from the article:

The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, alleges that Currin and two co-defendants concocted arrangements so that wealthy U.S. citizens could evade federal income taxes. Currin and the two co-defendants also are accused of preparing fraudulent documents to deceive the Internal Revenue Service.

If found guilty the maximum sentence for this former Republican leader is 60 years in jail. Part of the charges against him include giving misleading testimony during a grand jury appearance and requesting that a lawyer give false testimony regarding his case. Is it just me or is there something in the genes of Republican leaders that makes them unable to tell the truth?

I googled some of the names that we have associated with this scandal. Right away I found an article written by co-conspirator Howell Woltz (PDF format) in 2002. The article goes on at some length about the wonders of the Bahamas for investment purposes, and includes the following choice quote:

These non-government organizations that were created by the G-7 nations, have used terms such as "blacklisting" and other scurrilous labels and methods to pressure the economically free nations to become taxing socialists like the U.S., Canada, France and Britain have become over the last few decades.

Of course if a person believes the U.S. government are "taxing socialists" it is the capitalistic patriotic duty of that person to break the law to help others avoid paying their taxes. Makes perfect sense to me! Mr. Wolts is a martyr of capitalism. Whatever crime he committed in this whole affair was serious enough that prosecutors do not want to grant him bail during his trial.

I went and did a bunch of googling on a bunch of names and believe you me, this is a twisted web. Sterling group keeps popping up, and they have had previous run ins with the law over offshore banking. But I'll leave it to some investigative journalist to sort through the whole sordid affair! (I won't be holding my breath though)

So we have yet another ethically challenged Republican big wig. It happens so often these days that it barely causes a ripple. I feel quite certain that a former Democratic U.S. Attorney, and state chair being busted for this type of thing ten years ago would have sent the press into a frenzy...