GOP chairman Reince Priebus recently fired ex-chief Michael Steele’s staff for the 2012 convention in Tampa. But Priebus wasn’t elected until after the staff had spent $1 million — on a line of credit backed by the federal government. The Tampa Tribune has the details:
[Convention chief Belinda] Cook’s monthly salary of $9,782 – which would equate to $180,000 a year — was paid by the Committee on Arrangements using that line of credit, plus a $25,000 consulting fee for July, according to FEC records.
The committee also paid $4,500 monthly for Cook’s living quarters, a 3,200-square-foot waterfront home in Treasure Island with an outdoor pool and dock, valued at $636,993.
Cook’s son, Lee A. Cook, 26, a 2006 college graduate, was also on the payroll at about $5,000 a month from July to December, records show. Cook, a former special assistant at the U.S. Department of Defense, listed his job as national security research analyst.