Corruption charges: it pays to be a liberal

The soap opera scandal of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's election campaign, ring led by campaign manager Greg Kolomitz, is pooh-poohed by the Denver media. After all, we're all good liberals here, union members and all--so heh, no harm, no foul.

Ritter has totally sold out as Governor to Big Labor, forcing through a dubious executive order to allow state workers to unionize. One-hird of state employees have now done so, with more on the way. This guarantees a lush source of Democratic campaign cash, collected on the payroll checkoff by the state, and rebated to the unions. No wonder the union members manning the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News choose to wink and grin at Ritter's campaign scandal.

Kolomitz mishandled over $200,000 of Ritter's inaugural donations, paying off campaign debts with it, including $83,000 to himself. This has been out for a couple of months, but now Ritter had to come today to the Arapahoe County District Attorney, who is handling the investigation since Ritter was formerly Denver district attorney and employed most the staff there, with another $10,000 "mistake" by Kolomitz.

Kolomitz belongs in jail, but married well into a prominent Colorado Democratic family, and is a popular, hail-fellow-well-met type. He'll probably get no more than a wrist slap, if that.

The major point is, if a Republican had done a tenth of what Ritter and Kolomitz did, they'd already have been convicted by the media and be on the way to the Big House. The press has continuously been after GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez and Senate candidate Bob Schaeffer for alleged financial improprieties of a very minor nature, compared to what Ritter has done. Nothing has ever been proven or charges filed.

Ritter and Kolomitz' hypocrisy and outright corruption is beginning to smell. We can only hope the Republican DA in Arapahoe County has the courage and steadfastness to do what is right. After all, attorneys have a way of standing around with their hands in each other's pockets, laughing all the way to the bank, protecting their own.