Weiner, a liberal Dumbocrat who formally protested President Bush's reelection, gave back the shady money.
Specter, a notorious RINO, should do the right thing, and return the $20K he pocketed.
Robbi Weiner....you Meat head!
I hope someone from the paper calls back in a week to see if the money was really returned.
ARLEN SPECTER ALERT--POCKETED $20K SUSPECT CAMPAIGN BUCKS
http://www.jewishpress.com/news_article.asp?article=3434
Don`t Jump To Conclusions
Posted 2/25/2004
By Editorial Board
As we report this week on page 3, federal
charges that Rabbi Yehoshua (Milton) Balkany,
one of the more prominent figures in the Orthodox
Jewish educational world, pocketed $700,000 from
an educational grant have been dismissed. And
there is an important lesson to be learned.
At the time of Rabbi Balkany`s arrest last
August, the press had a field day. The Village
Voice referred to the highly respected educator as
"Rabbi Bunco" in its report on the event. New York
Post headlines read "Thou Shall Not Steal: Feds
Charge Rabbi With Scamming 700G" and "Rogue
Rabbi Boosted Pols As Heat Was On." The Jewish
Week headline read: "Brooklyn Bundler" Arrested
on Fraud Charges," taking ill-concealed delight in
skewering Rabbi Balkany`s political fund-raising.
Not to be outdone , the Forward headlined its
report with "Rabbi Facing Fraud Charges Plans
Return to Fund-raising" and began with "A
Brooklyn rabbi charged with defrauding the
federal government of almost $700,000 is
proclaiming his innocence and vowing that his
legal troubles have only temporarily halted his
prodigious political fund-raising."
What was plainly afoot was the
delegitimization of a prominent Orthodox figure
who had the temerity to involve himself in the
political process.
And, we daresay, many others were ready to
credit the unproven charges, as levelled,
instinctively ready to believe the worst of the
Orthodox.
Providentially, the US Attorney took the
matter very seriously and was not interested in
just another scalp. When he saw that the financial
discrepancies were explainable in non-criminal
terms, he readily agreed to a disposition providing
for reimbursement of the $700,000 in disputed
funds, with no prosecution. Indeed, the $700,000
turned out to have been used for educational
services for handicapped children, albeit in
apparent violation of the terms of the grant.
Skeptics should keep in mind that the grant
involved was for $3.5 million. Thus, by any
reckoning, the use of 80 percent of the funds was
not even put into question and Rabbi Balkany`s
enterprise in the matter was never thought to be
fundamentally corrupt.
In some circles, Orthodox personalities will
always be especially suspect simply because of who
they are. We hope against hope that the outcome of
the Balkany affair will change things in this
regard.