We told you, we told you, we told you. We told you all about Cobb GOP Chairman Anthony Scott Hobbs and how he...lies...exaggerates...embellishes the truth about what he's up to on any given day.

Well, a funny thing happened this past election year...he got CAUGHT in a big FUBAR. He and one of his faithful puppy-dogs in the Cobb GOP, Sandra Thompson. (A person, by the way, for whom we feel nothing but complete derision, as she was one of the ones strongly in favor of the infamous "Censor" of the Political Vine's Chief Intern back in March 2004.)

In the past, we've presented evidence of Hobbs' 2-,3-,4-faced personality. In fact, here is our documentation, dating back as far as December 2002 (each of these articles is a bit on the long side, but, it shows that we've done our part over the years to warn people):

Hobbs scams business owners into giving money to him. (12/2/2002)

Hobbs and Gilhuly spell more TROUBLE for the Cobb GOP (1/30/2003).

Hobbs tries to break the Rules of the State GOP in his mad attempt at taking power (12/15/2003)

The Hobbs Gang initiates character assasination runs on any opponents to his slate (2/28/2003)

The Hobbs GOP Gang plays some funny money games (9/30/2003).

The Hobbs GOP Gang attempts to "Censor" (sic) Bill Simon and the Political Vine...and they lose by a 2:1 vote at the Cobb County Convention (3/6/2004).

AND, Now, To Present Day FUBAR...

Well, now, the real Mr. Hobbs has been exposed by a 17-year-old intern. Not in a sexual way, but in an eyewitness way. And, this story comes to us by way of this week's edition of Creative Loafing.

Senior Editor John Sugg, who, granted, is quite the liberal-oriented journalist, (but that doesn't make him a liar), tells a rather fascinating story about our reptillian Cobb County GOP Chairman, Anthony Scott Hobbs.

Sugg tells the story of how a high-school student from Marietta High School found her way into working directly for Hobbs as his "executive assistant" during this past election cycle. This student, named Gabi McMichen was funneled to Hobbs by way of a Marietta High School teacher, Sandra Thompson, who just happens to also sit on the Cobb GOP Executive Committee as Assistant Treasurer.

It seems that Ms. McMichen, who was raised by very conservative Christian parents, witnessed Hobbs expressing his true feelings about some elected officials, some contributors, and other Republican entities that Hobbs came in contact with. In her words, his expressions were "horrific" (our experience tells us it was likely some profanity that Hobbs decided to use to impress his young charge).

When you read Sugg's article, you will come upon a quote by the Marietta High School principal who, when asked by Sugg in an interview if such language was appropriate for a high school student to hear, the principal, Gordon Pritz, says "You believe a student?"

Hmm...interesting...Mr. Pritz apparently is the leader of Marietta High School's Fascist Club. For a principal to respond with "You believe a student?" demonstrates utter contempt for their job and who they are supposed to be serving. Perhaps Mr. Pritz learned such responses from Principal School where they advise principals that when they are accused of anything improper (be it a student accusing them of sexual molestation or a Republican being accused of using inappropriate language in an internship), they should respond to all such inquiries as though the student is lying and making stuff up.

Anyway, this is the Creative Loafing article link...read it...it shows the two-faced side of Hobbs we've always known about.. (And, if Sandra Thompson happens to get nailed by the Professional Standards Board, all the more sweeter.)

Smells A Little Bit Like...Mail Fraud, Doesn't It?

In last Sunday's AJC (12/12/2004 edition), there was an article on Hobbs on Page ZG1 and his nascent paper publication titled Citizen Georgia. The article mostly covers a particular election issue which depicted opposing Democrats in homosexual-implied poses.

We have no interest in the gist of the article. But, there is one aspect of the article that did draw our attention...the bit that describes Hobbs' monthly circulation of his newspaper.

The article states that the Citizen Georgia monthly newspaper has "an 80,000-circulation" audience. AND, that it costs $36 per year to have it mailed to someone.

"80,000?" We very much doubt that circulation is truthful. We doubt it is even 8000...or, 800...or, 80, if that.

But, here's a kinda funny...related story. One of the 142 some-odd felony counts against State Senator Charles Walker (D-Augusta) is mail fraud.

The mail fraud investigation came about, we believe, as a result of a state ethics complaint filed against Walker by some guy who lives somewhere in Cobb County (...oh, you know him...what's his name..some guy who spends hours reading the code just so he can scissor political fools...well, anyway, the guy who filed the complaint is not as important as the complaint itself).

The complaint alleged that something was very fishy about the fact that Senator Walker paid about $38,000 out of his campaign account for "advertising" to a newspaper called "The Augusta Focus" ("Focus"). The Focus just happens to be owned by none other than Senator Walker himself.

The ethics complaint alleged that something was awry because how could a small-town newspaper charge such high rates for advertising when it's subscription was only $24.95 for a 52-week subscription? Well, the feds picked right up on the same line of thinking. Walker's original claim to the feds was that he had a massive circulation and that is what justified the advertising rates.

Upon a complete proctology exam of Walker's records, the feds discovered that the true circulation didn't match the circulation that Walker had claimed. And, in fact, the feds discovered other entities, separate from Walker's campaign, who had been told that the circulation was "X-amount" and Walker charged them much higher advertising rates than what the circulation actually reflected.

Stating that you have a circulation of "X-amount" when you are nowhere near X-amount, is what's known as an "embellishment." When someone then proceeds to sell people on the idea of buying ads for the publication based on X-amount circulation that really isn't there, that constitutes a significant fraud.

AND, when someone uses the U.S. Postal Service to mail a newspaper whose ads have been sold on the basis of fraudulent circulation numbers, then that constitutes "mail fraud," a felony at the federal level. But, that's Senator Walker's problem, right?

Maybe, maybe not. As we've described before, whether it be Hobbs' predilection to claiming he has raised X-amount of contributions to the county party, and evidence revealed shows to the contrary, OR whether he claims he has worked to turnout numbers to elect certain candidates, Hobbs has quite the record of not being entirely truthful in the job he's doing as chairman.

In fact, in that same Sunday AJC article that discusses the supposed "80,000-circulation," Hobbs claims that "When I ran for office, I let everyone know what I was going to do [with regard to starting Citizen Georgia]." No, he didn't. Yet another lie propagated by Mr. Hobbs.

Further, he also claimed in the article that there was no connection between Citizen Georgia and the Cobb GOP. Really? So, why did everyone who was ever on the Cobb GOP delegate rolls (dating back 8 years) receive a postcard announcing the initiation of the Citizen Georgia newspaper? Also, one might inquire as to why Citizen Georgia is being advertised on the Cobb GOP website? Is the Cobb GOP deriving advertising revenue from the ad? We bet Treasurer Michael Altman and Assistant Treasurer Sandra Thompson will be busy working on fabricating some ad revenue numbers just in time for the upcoming committee meeting to demonstrate that EVERYTHING is all on the up-and-up with Anthony-Scott Hobbs running the show in Cobb. Yeah. Right.

So, let us be on the record that we are highly doubtful of Hobbs' circulation numbers of "80,000" paid subscriptions to his newspaper. And, we caution anyone else believing the numbers as well...because there is no way they are there. Unless, perhaps, he's stuffing mailboxes all over town...

Anyways, we'll continue to keep you informed with all of the scheming and plan-hatching that continues to go on in the Cobb GOP.

Ethics? You Want Ethics? Here's How To Get Ethics

We have no idea of what is in the Governor's upcoming ethics legislation package. But, we hope there is something in there about requiring ALL PACs charged with raising money for state-based issues and/or candidates to be required to disclose ALL transactions on, at minimum, a yearly basis. Even if they never contribute money directly to a candidate, there is way too much opportunity for fraud to occur.

Take, as an example, the financial books of the Cobb County GOP. Now, you will hear Treasurer Altman claim that the books were "audited" and no problems were found. As anyone who has lived during the time of Enron and the accounting firms who had supposedly "audited" their books knows, "auditing" doesn't uncover diddly-squat about fraud.

The only thing an "accounting audit" accomplishes is the checking to see if procedures have been followed in accordance with standard practices. Accounting audits are not designed to uncover fraud.

Fraud, like, say, if money from the Cobb GOP is being used to help finance Hobbs' commercial activities, a normal accounting audit would not see anything wrong with that because the auditor has no idea of who is who and how money is allowed, or not allowed, to be spent in a PAC.

No, auditing the books does nothing but pay an accountant money to see if debits are being properly entered on the left and credits on the right and the books are being balanced properly. (Note to accountants: Don't even try to protest. We'll bury you with the carcass of Arthur Andersen.)

SO, that is our wish. To require every single political entity that raises money for political purposes to be required to disclose what money goes in and what money goes out. Call it a "527" disclosure law for the state. It is a very necessary law to reveal where money raised for political purposes is going. AND, since the funds are for a public/political purpose, then that should be all the more reason why legislators should be keenly interested in requiring such disclosure, right?