Free Republic

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The expose came not in a rush but in slow, infuriating revelations. For more than two years, Cuyahoga County residents absorbed reports of cronyism and corruption on a scale no one imagined possible. A community that paid little attention to the mundane chores of county government learned of cash bribes, a sham election, gambling junkets to Las Vegas and Canada, sketchy tax assessments and outright thievery. On Thursday, we learned that the sordid charade is finally nearing its end. That long, loud scrape echoing across Ohio's largest county was a political machine grinding to a halt. The...

Concord, N.H. -- Fraudulent bookkeeping last year crushed Democrat Burt Cohen's U.S. Senate hopes. Now the man responsible for it faces a prison term. Jesse Burchfield, 32, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. Burchfield has been in California since quitting the campaign in June 2004, around the time Cohen aides realized they were unable to account for thousands of dollars in campaign cash. The discovery killed Cohen's campaign on June 10, 2004, one day before the filing period closed. "I look forward to justice being done,"...