The Return of Coingate

Remember this story? Republican operative Tom Noe used his political connections to garner a multi-million dollar state investment in his rare coin venture-- then siphoned off millions of the taxpayer dollars to call his own. Also implicated were Governor Taft, Ohio's attorney general, and good ol' Ken Blackwell, of last fall's voter suppression campaign.

Now it looks as though-- a la Tom DeLay-- hi filthy lucre might taint a lot more Republicans than previously suspected. The Toledo Blade continues to show what investigative reporting is all about:

Tom Noe often transferred tens of thousands of dollars from the Ohio rare-coin funds he managed to his personal business before bankrolling Republican candidates and causes with contributions and loans.

A Blade examination of the accounting records from Mr. Noe’s $50 million rare-coin venture shows a pattern of large sums of money moving from the coin funds to his personal business, Vintage Coins and Collectibles, in the days and weeks before the coin dealer and his wife, Bernadette, made contributions to Republican candidates ranging from President Bush to U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and Gov. Bob Taft down to Lucas County Auditor Larry Kaczala.