November 20, 1974

Ohio GOP Cleared AFTER The Election

Isn't it interesting that within the week AFTER election three wild charges damaging to Ohio Republicans were "dismissed" for lack of evidence?

A Franklin County court ruled that former State Treasurer John D.  Herbert was not responsible for a bad investment that certain newspapers blew up into a "state house loan scandal."

A Cuyahoga County court dismissed charges against eight Ohio National Guardsmen that they conspired to violate the civil rights of four Kent State students killed in an anti-war demonstration.

The Ohio Democratic Party failed to substantiate charges that James Rhodes inaccurately reported the number of tickets sold to a spring fund-raising dinner.

The court cases involved events of more than four years ago which were kept alive as anti-Rhodes weapons by manipulation of the legal processes.

The alleged Rhodes violation of campaign reporting was a smoke screen to cover up very real and very serious charges by the General Accounting Office that the Ohio Democratic Party solicited funds from state employees and failed to account for all contributions in the 1972 election.

Perhaps Ohio Attorney General William Brown, who has been sitting on the GAO report since Feb. 5, now will give the Democratic campaign violations some attention.  But don't bet on it for Brown is, himself, guilty of the GAO charges.

The belated ruling on the trumped up "state house loan scandal" is particularly galling to Republicans.  The allegations were phony from start to finish, but no one would listen to GOP denials or take the trouble to sort out the deliberately confusing facts.

As a result, the half dozen top men in the Republican party were slanderously destroyed, and the GOP lost all its future leadership.

There was a real scandal, but it involved an officer of the School Employees Retirement System accepting a bribe from an agent of Crofters, Inc., a money-finding firm.

In the ensuing investigation it was learned that another agent of Crofters had negotiated a $4-million loan from the State Treasurer’s office for King Resources Nursing Homes which was in default.

Furthermore, it was discovered that Robert F.  Gardner, deputy to Herbert, had for a few days exceeded the statutory limit of $50 million for state investments in commercial loans by $5 million.

A grand jury established that no state house bribery had occurred - as did occur in the separate school fund incident - and that no political official benefited from any transaction.

Nevertheless, the "scandal" was kept alive by legal charges that Herbert and Gardner had mismanaged the King Resources loan.

The facts are that the loan was made after Dun & Bradstreet had given King Resources a top credit rating, and that King has since paid nearly $2 million on its debt secured by real estate.

In absolving Herbert and Gardner, the court said the excess $5 million in temporary state holdings did not violate the law inasmuch as investments were "liquid" and could be reduced to the legal maximum by the next accounting period.

Thus, the record is set straight.  However, the careers and reputations of honest men, dedicated to serving the public, were wiped out by ruthless critics unable to make an honest case for their partisan cause.

It is strange how Republicans have become the repeated targets of smears that Democrats get away with time after time.

It is equally strange that Republicans are unable in the heat of the moment to defend themselves, and history has to rescue the truth when the whole matter has become meaningless.

The Judge in the Kent State trial threw out that case simply because the prosecution could not present any evidence of a conspiracy.  The evidence was not even worth the attention of the jury.

Perhaps the parents were seeking only "justice," but their efforts smacked more strongly of radical politics and an attempt to destroy Governor Rhodes or any other Republican in the line of fire.

A citizens' grand jury immediately after the shooting found the students guilty of riot and provocation.  Not satisfied with this ultimate judical procedure, the radicals and their media allies screamed until President Nixon appointed a national panel of blue ribbon officials.  They held that all authorities touched by the tragedy had acted legally in the discharge of their duties.

Still the issue had propaganda mileage so the parents went after the only remaining participants - the guardsmen themselves.

It was a cheap shot which revealed to the last skeptic the political motivation behind the four-year propaganda campaign.

There is a temptation to make a case of patent unfairness to Republicans - of a hypocritical double standard of political ethics - and let the matter rest.

But much more is at stake than the fortunes of a political party.

Forty two years of wild charges against Republicans - for every national problem from depression to dirty politics - has robbed us of an effective two-party system.

Since 1930 the Republicans have controlled the Presidency for only six years and the Congress for four years.  Under Democrat domination the U.S. has suffered three wars, spawned uncontrollable inflation, and created a national debt that can never be paid off.

It is time the Democratic party was held accountable for its actions, too.

Goading the Republican party is great fun, but during the circus the empire outside the arena is falling.

Author: Lindsey Williams