Busted?

I heard this one a few weeks ago, now it finally hits print. As much as I don't like the son of a bitch, even I didn't he could be this stupid.

PI SCOOP … TSONGAS CAMPAIGN REPORTS BOSTON GLOBE COLUMNIST DAN SHAUGHNESSY MADE DONATION HE DIDN’T: Deep within the campaign finance filings of Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) is a: $250 contribution last year from Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy. At face value, the contribution would appear to violate the Globe’s newsroom ethics policy (http://b.globe.com/O2vaim ), which plainly states: “Staff members may not themselves give money to any political candidate or election cause or raise money for one” and “journalists do not take part in politics. (insert laugh track here - ed)”

Boston Globe editor Marty Baron tells PI that the Tsongas campaign “improperly listed” the contribution as coming from Shaughnessy. “I’ve spoken to Dan and his wife, Marilou. The check was written by Marilou on her own behalf. It was written on a joint checking account … Dan did not make the donation,” Baron wrote in an email. As proof, Baron included a copy of the contribution check (http://bit.ly/MomDWS ), which lists both husband and wife at its top but is signed by Marilou Shaughnessy.

The joint checking account part was definitely dumb - I wonder if that gets / keeps him in hot water?

Told about the contribution, the Tsongas campaign checked its books, and Deputy Campaign Manager Jesse Bragg acknowledged: “It was definitely an administrative error on our side that we will amend as soon as possible.”

To paraphrase former Washington DC mayor Marion Barry, "Bitch set me up!"