Mugging Grandma

Some Republicans have sunk to a new low. Is it it any wonder that people get disgusted with politics when GOP operatives will bilk your grandmother out of more money than she can afford?

Many of the top donors were in their 80s and 90s. The donors wrote checks — sometimes hundreds and, in at least one case, totaling more than $100,000 — to groups with official sounding-names such as "Republican Headquarters 2004," "Republican Elections Committee" and the "National Republican Campaign Fund."

But all of those groups, according to the small print on the letters, were simply projects of the College Republicans, who collected all of the checks.

And little of the money went to election efforts.

Of the money spent by the group this year, nearly 90 percent went to direct-mail vendors and postage expenses, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Some of the elderly donors, meanwhile, wound up bouncing checks and emptying their bank accounts.

Some of us here at Boring Diatribe have grandmothers, and some of them have been taken by scumbuckets like this. Have a look at this murderers' row of alumni:

The group has been a starting place for many prominent conservatives, including Bush adviser Karl Rove, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed.

Apparently someone over at the College Republicans had a twinge of conscience before drowning that inconvenience in the bathtub:

The board debated the fund-raising practices after the family of an elderly Indiana woman with Alzheimer's disease demanded that her donations be returned. The woman's family said it had sent a registered letter asking that she be taken off the mailing list, but the solicitations continued.

Only after a newspaper reported on the story did the College Republicans refund $40,000 to the family, according to Jackie Boyle, one of the woman's nieces.

"I think this is a nationwide scam," Boyle said on hearing of recent complaints. "They're covering the whole country ... they need to be investigated."

Ya think?

They're cheating senile old ladies. If people ask you why you're voting Democrat this time around, tell them, "I don't think John Kerry will mug my grandmother."