Posted on 06/19/2007 7:35:57 PM PDT by Islander7
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, a former real estate developer who became a rising political star after his election last year, was indicted Tuesday on federal cocaine charges.
Ravenel is also the state chairman for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.
Ravenel has stepped down from his volunteer responsibilities with the campaign, according to a statement released by Mark Campbell, Giuliani's political director.
Campbell said the campaign has no information about the accusations pending against Ravenel.
The millionaire is accused of buying less than 500 grams of the drug to share with other people in late 2005, U.S. Attorney Reggie Lloyd said.
Ravenel, 44, is charged with distribution of cocaine, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I would think the white powder residue under his nostrils may have been a good clue. LOL!
The “Draft Ravenel for Senate 2008” petition has been taken down “by request of author”, but this delightful “unofficial, unauthorized Ravenel page” is still up:
Politics is ugly ain’t it (lol)
ROFL! Classic!
Of course, General Kachinga Cheatchusuckah is known to have devised the Nigerian 419 Scams.
I would think a good clue was........everytime Rooty's people called and asked how things were going, Ravenel would say, "Jeez, shaddup you miserable coke-head. Hold your damn horses. We're getting the kilos ready fast as we can."
Ruutie hates drugs but wouldn’t stand in the way of someones choice to get really high :-) He’s toast. I mean toasted.
Why? I don’t know how much he bought. They say it was some amount less than 500 grams. Five hundred grams would be an awful lot to have for personally use though, even if a guy was having an all weekend coke party and providing all the party supplies. Whether the guy was filthy rich or not that would be an awful lot of coke to have on hand. I still don’t see a really rich guy buying that little to sell though. Cocaine prices vary a lot, but about $1000 an ounce is pretty common in my area. I’m a criminal defense attorney and I’ve seen plenty of delivery cases where that’s what an ounce cost the confidential informant or undercover cops in my area. Kilo’s, a 1000 grams, will often go for around $15,000 to $20,000 in my area. I wouldn’t be surprised if a pound costs $10,000 or less where this guy is from. Grams maybe costs $60 or $80, and “eight balls” around $150, but he wouldn’t be messing with selling small amounts for a little extra pocket change when he has millions already. That just doesn’t make any sense. If I had to bet right now not knowing anything about the case other than that he had less than 500 grams, I’d bet it was closer to the neighborhood of a couple of ounces tops rather than in excess of a pound. He’s not going to have that many friends he’ll do coke with. He’s a politician and he’s got to keep that all hush hush. He might buy quantity though to save a buck because it gets cheaper and cheaper the more you buy, and a guy like this might also want to buy quantity to limit his contact with drug dealer types by buying enough to last. He doesn’t want to run out in the middle of a binge and have to go cruising in the seedy parts of town looking to score some more. That’s too risky.
Who knows what happened here? It would be interesting to learn some of the back story on all this. Maybe he was consorting with a bunch of strippers and liked to have lots of coke around to keep them happy. Maybe he was buying it to help him schmooze a bunch of coke snorting high roller campaign donors. We’ll probably never hear the whole story. But I bet we see him check himself into rehab.
“We’re getting the kilos ready fast as we can.”
chortle......snicker.....S N O R T
If it's all about "Graham", you better be damn sure your "true conservative" is SUPERIOR to him. Your cokehead Rudy supporter certainly is not. Perhaps you might scrunitize a candidate's integrity and beliefs a bit more closely before hitching your hide to any popular "R" in South Carolina that you think can "Take out" Graham.
Good luck in your continuing quest to find 100% pure candidate. Someday you might wake up and figure out the Tom Coburns of this world are one in a million.
Thank goodness their "True conservative" wasn't elected to that body. The MSN would be blasting this "Republican scandal" 24-7 if this idiot's lifestyle was uncovered in the Senate. 1 RINO-loving druggie in the Senate was already too many.
Think the Graham haters will admit they were wrong?
I am obviously very disappointed in Ravenel (but the timing of the charges look extremely suspicious, to say the least — politically motivated).
But how does that change the fact that Graham is a treasonous RINO Kennedy-fellatiating scumbag ? Ravenel ain’t the only candidate to take out the trash in SC. We need a real man to step up.
It would be great if Governor Sanford were to run.
But he won’t, and it’s too risky to leave the state to the erratic Andre Bauer. Now if Mike Campbell were the Lieutenant Governor now, it would be a different story.
Does losing the Lt. Gov. primary disqualify Mike Campbell? Another name that comes to mind for me is ex-Spartanberg County Commissioner Karen Floyd, who was almost elected state Superintendent of Schools last year.
No, it doesn’t disqualify him, but it makes it a harder hill to climb. Same goes for Karen Floyd (which looks worse in that she couldn’t take, as a Republican, an open statewide office). Our failure to take it should’ve had Sanford try to abolish it as an elective office and make it appointive.
Absent Campbell and Ravenel, we should also consider Congressmen Gresham Barrett or Joe Wilson (Henry Brown is a fine man, too, but he’ll be 73 next year. Too old. Inglis is unacceptable as he is a squish on Iraq, and I’d like to see him replaced in the House by Mike Fair), ex-Sec of State Jim Miles or ex-Atty Gen Charlie Condon should also be top alternatives.
” Same goes for Karen Floyd (which looks worse in that she couldn’t take, as a Republican, an open statewide office).”
She lost by only 565 votes in 2006 for an office that usually elects Democrats (as Republicans are seen as anti-education in many quarters).
What’s so peculiar about this office in SC vs. GA. The GA GOP won the office in the ‘90s as one of its first breakthroughs, and have controlled it ever since, but in SC, we still have yet to win it (I don’t believe a Republican has ever held the office). I’m not sure it’s such a great idea that it is even elected, as the teacher unions will do whatever it takes to buy the office for the rodents. It really should be an office directly accountable to the Governor.
But as for Miss Floyd, I don’t know a whole lot about her. While I’d favor her in a rematch with the Democrat victor, the fact that she got fewer votes than the erratic Andre Bauer is not very reassuring. Besides, absent Sanford, Bauer, and Ravenel, there are still 5 other statewide Republicans (Mark Hammond, the Sec of State; Atty Gen Henry McMaster; Comptroller Richard Eckstrom; Adjutant General Stan Spears & AG Commissioner Hugh Weathers), all of whom would have a better claim to running for federal office.
I don't know about that. Everyone makes a bad hire every once in a while, but Giuliani has a long history of hiring lawbreakers and unqualified, corrupt cronies to important positions. Here are some examples:
He appointed high school dropout and former driver Bernard Kerik to NYC Police Commissioner and pushed him for Homeland Security Chief. Kerik turned out to be corrupt and mob-connected. Giuliani later testified that he had been briefed on Kerik's lawbreaking -- yet he pushed him for the top anti-terrorism post in the country, and then went into business with him.
For NYC Chancellor of Education, Giuliani pushed Leon Goldstein, who later was forced to withdraw his candidacy in disgrace because he lied about his qualifications.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE0DB1539F93BA1575AC0A963958260
In 1995, Giuliani pushed Leonard Piccoli to an executive director job in NYC's public hospitals organization, despite the fact that Piccoli had been forced to resign from the same job in 1985 due to substantial contracts and ethics violations.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6DC1739F93AA25756C0A963958260
One of Giuliani's closest political allies in NYC, Guy Velella, pled guilty to and served time for taking bribes in return for awarding government contracts.
''I endorsed him, I support him, I've worked with him, I know what a good job he's done for New York City and for the Bronx,'' Mr. Giuliani said. The mayor said he thought the disclosures about the criminal investigation would not seriously damage the senator.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B02E3DF1639F930A35752C1A9669C8B63&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fV%2fVelella%2c%20Guy%20J%2e
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0420,robbins,53585,5.html
Giuliani's Probation Commissioner Raul Russi, and Deputy Probation Commissioner Louis Gelormino, later were dismissed from their jobs under Bloomberg because of their involvement in Velella's early release from jail.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10914FA355F0C708DDDA90994DC404482&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fV%2fVelella%2c%20Guy%20J%2e
After Ray Harding, head of NYC's Liberal Party, endorsed Giuliani, Giuliani appointed his son Russell Harding to head NYC's Housing Development Corporation -- even though Russell Harding was a college dropout with no experience in housing or finance (Giuliani chose a second son, Robert, as NYC's budget director, and later promoted him to deputy mayor). Russell Harding later pled guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands in public funds, and to possessing child pornography.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0512,robbins2,62314,5.html
The Russell case brought down another of Giuliani's top appointees. Giuliani appointed Richard Roberts NYC Housing Commissioner, and Chairman of the Health and Hospitals Corporation; Roberts was later convicted of perjury related to a $38,000 SUV Russell Harding bought him with city funds.
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0436,robbins2,56554,5.html
Giuliani appointed his lifelong friend, Louis Carbonetti, Commissioner of NYC's Community Assistance Unit. Carbonetti was forced to resign when news came out that he failed to disclose more than $100,000 in business debts and back taxes and held two driver's licenses with slightly different names at the same time. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to perjury. Carbonetti's son, Anthony Carbonetti, was Giuliani's chief of staff and is now his senior political adviser.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/ny-lijani255229113may25,0,729089.story?coll=ny-lipolitics-headlines
Giuliani's friend Alan Placa was hired on at Giuliani Partners after Placa, a Long Island Priest, was barred from the ministry because of allegations of sexual abuse and using his role as a spiritual adviser to gain information from victims to strengthen the diocese's legal position.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=46&aid=19106
So, these are the types of hires Giuliani -- a candidate who is running on a "Leadership" platform -- makes? Giuliani, the supposed "Security" candidate shows either no ability or no inclination to vet the records of his important hires (or he doesn't care if they are corrupt)?
If this were an isolated incident, I wouldn't consider this story pertinent. But given Giuliani's record, in combination with the platform upon which he's running, I believe this story is telling.
Ping to post #139 (I did a little research and compiled a list of Giuliani’s corrupt hires and cronies. I limited the list to those who admitted guilt, were convicted or removed from their jobs — I would guess there are more out there.)
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