Politico yesterday:
Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to GOP sources briefed on the members-only discussions....
“There is a sense that this could be very damaging to the committee,” said a Republican insider close to the GOP leadership....
The NRCC internal investigation centers on Christopher J. Ward, a former NRCC treasurer who worked at the committee until mid-August of last year, according to those briefed on the matter. From that time until late December, Ward was an outside contractor for the NRCC, according to Federal Election Commission records....
In a statement released Friday by NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), still the only official NRCC comment on the matter, Cole said there were “accounting irregularities” at the committee that “may include fraud.”
The 2008 congressional playing field is looking better and better.
--Christopher Orr