He’s no Ted Stevens

I am not saying Roscoe Bartlett is just like Alaska’s Republican Senator Ted Stevens. No way.

You know Ted Stevens. He was just indicted for failure to file accurate and proper financial disclosure forms – those being the legal papers that would tell anyone who would like to know where our congressional “leaders” get and keep their wealth, among other things.

After all, Ted Stevens is alleged to have engaged in some interesting financial hanky-panky with an oil services company and some expensive home repairs on a still ratty looking A-frame he calls a residence somewhere south of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (It is, however, somewhat closer to Ted’s infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” pork-barrel project.)

Roscoe’s pickle is nothing like that. Ted Stevens is innocent until proven guilty and so is Roscoe, who is apparently so innocent he has a multitude of reasons why he filed multiple false financial disclosure forms for about 5 years. The same things just keep happening over and over. And over and over.

A million dollars worth of cash flow is a terrible thing to lose. But who’re you going to blame?

Roscoe blamed his son and then threw his wife under the bus. (Ted’s son, also an Alaska elected official as part of the extended Stephens family political dynasty, is being investigated by federal authorities, as well. But, that’s really par for the course for Alaska Republicans these days.)

Roscoe told the Frederick News-Post - "I really was a bit player," he said. "My son rebuilt the houses; my wife wrote the checks."

Then Roscoe blamed his staff and – to his everlasting credit – his inability to read stuff he must sign under the penalty of perjury. (Mess that up and you could face hefty fines and a 5-year prison sentence for each count. Something Ted Stevens is learning very quickly.)

Also from the News-Post: “Bartlett blamed that error on staff first not reading his handwritten notes correctly, and then his own signing of the finished form without reading it, something he said he shouldn't have done.”

That’s a lot of bad reading habits spread out over 5 years.

Hey, I sympathize with the staffers on this. Getting blamed for the boss’s failure to check the accuracy of HIS financial disclosure is just part of the job. It happens all the time. It’s just a good thing you didn’t actually sign the thing(s). Roscoe did.

Then Roscoe blamed something he called “problems” and “omissions” and things that go “confused” in the night.

Then he pulled out the trump card: blame the press for telling the truth. In his own press release last week, Roscoe’s spokespeople toiled against all odds to answer those nasty old “unsupported insinuations by The Frederick News Post.”

In short, Roscoe won’t accept responsibility. I guess doing so might be used against him in a court of law. So, we won’t be seeing, according to him, any of his tax returns on the issue, either. That’s his right and that’s his “problem” as well. The people are losing patience with Roscoe and it turns out some of them vote.

Roscoe did try to tell anyone who would listen that he “made no money” on the sale of these properties.

I always thought a million dollars was money. What do I know?

He even hired a certified public accountant to “certify” as much in a press release.

It was a friendly CPA to be sure. Apparently, Mrs. CPA is the campaign treasurer for a good friend and Republican political buddy-buddy from Frederick County. But don’t let that get in the way of flowery language like this: “It is clear from the cost records that you lost money in the aggregate from the sale of these three properties."

Well, if you’re talking “aggregate” I’m totally convinced.

After 18 long torturous years in office; a college degree or two or three; a staff of what we presume are college educated and experienced people; a record of doing virtually nothing within a party that was in total power for a while; belonging to a party that shunned him like a diseased yak on his own issues - what does this all add up to?

It’s easy. The people of Maryland’s 6th District will be better served by a freshman congresswoman who is a member of the party in power rather than return the guy who wasn’t even effective when he had the chance. Those GOP days in Congress are long gone.

Roscoe has about 15 or so campaign debates and forums being set up in his honor and that of his opponent, Democrat Jennifer Dougherty. Let’s see if he shows up for any of them to refute that basic truth and his multi-year, million dollar failures to disclose.