In 2005 much of Ohio politics was dominated by the controversy surrounding a scandal dubbed “Coingate” by the media:
Coingate is a nickname for the Thomas Noe investment scandal in Ohio revealed in early 2005 in part by Ohio newspaper Toledo Blade. The Ohio government’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation fund (BWC) invested hundreds of millions of dollars in high risk or unconventional investment vehicles run by people closely connected to the Ohio Republican party who had made large campaign contributions to many senior Republican party officials.
A rare coin investment fund has attracted particular scrutiny after it was reported that two coins worth more than $300,000 had been lost. Further investigation then revealed that coins worth $10-$12 million were missing and that only $13 million of the original $50 million invested could be accounted for. [Link]
As you would expect, politicians, especially Democrats running for office this year, find it beneficial to point to the Coingate affair as another example of Republican corruption and a reason to vote to change the status quo. One of those politicians is a Democrat named Subodh Chandra (see previous SM mention here) who is running for Attorney General of Ohio. Subodh recently talked about the Coingate affair to drum up support at one of his fundraisers. Well…he didn’t so much “talk” about Coingate, rather he…well you’ll see:
Apparently it was a “kid friendly” fundraiser. What? Kids in pre-school really do dig politics. The man is providing a valuable service to a segment of the population that lacks a voice in their government. His puppeteering skills aren’t bad either.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer provides a play-by-play and mentions a second clip posted to the Chandra campaign website as well:
…the seven-minute skit features a clueless “King Bob Taft,” a snorting “Piggy Tom Noe” and a couple of asleep-at-the-switch characters named “Patrolman Petro” and “Montgomery” who weren’t paying attention while Piggy was busy looting the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
“Helloooo there, I’m King Taft,” Chandra intones as his sons Akaash, Chéthan and Karthik squeal with delight. “You know what I did? I’ll tell you what I did. What I wound up doing was taking 50 MILLION DOLLARS of money that was meant for injured workers, and you know what I invested it in: Rare coins, Beanie Babies and autographed baseballs!”
The skit ends with a couple of off-key sing-alongs, including “We Love Corruption,” set to the tune of Queen’s “We Are the Champions”:
We love corruption, my friends.
We’ll get indicted in the end.
We love corruption, we love corruption.
No time for governing because we love corruption.
The second clip is a “Separated at Birth” spoof featuring Chandra’s Democratic primary opponent, Sen. Marc Dann, as Homer Simpson and Chandra as Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the Hindu Kwik-E-Mart employee on “The Simpsons…” [Link]
