Yet another Republican demonstrates what "free" market means

By Lee Russ

Monday, November 06, 2006 at 11:00 AM

The Republican conga line to the courtroom recently gained one more dancer: recently resigned Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti.

His alleged (now admitted) offense? As described by the Miami Herald:

A former Palm Beach County Commission chairman was charged Monday with conspiracy to commit fraud in a scheme that authorities say made him and his family millions of dollars from secret land deals.

But he's sorry, of course he's sorry, you know he's sorry, just like all the other dozens of criminal Republicans were sorry:

To demonstrate my regret and sorrow, I am committed to cooperating with the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney's Office in this matter. Eventually I will plead guilty. I can only hope that my decision to resign, face my mistakes and cooperate with these authorities will result in mercy from the Court, and more importantly, forgiveness from the community I have served.

Unlike Tony, I sincerely hope that he gets justice from the court, not "mercy."

The sordid little tale of misuse of office for massive personal gain is now slowly seeping out at the edges, encompassing more and more of the business community movers and shakers in the county.  Sort of like the Abramoff tale, and the Cunningham tale, and the Foley tale, and the many tales of under-the-table deals in Iraq, and the "coingate" tale that is ingesting the Ohio Republican Party.

You want values?  The party of values has values.   Which value you want?  How many of them? How much you want to pay for it?  Is that the money there, in the suitcase?  Slide it toward me.