INMATE INVITED TO GOP GALA

Note from Dick Cheney winds up at Ohio prison

Weird News

The Republican Party's desire to take control of Congress apparently
stretches from the White House to the Big House -- a k a the Belmont
Correctional Institution in St. Clairsville.

That's where Canton resident Robert H. Kirkpatrick, who is serving time in
the Ohio prison for cocaine possession and escape since his Stark County
conviction last year, received a letter from Vice President Dick Cheney on
official letterhead.

"I write to invite you to join the President and Mrs. Bush for a private
dinner here in Washington, D.C., on June 19th,'' Cheney wrote. "And also
ask you to serve as a representative of St. Clairsvle, Ohio at the
President's Dinner. In fact, a special place of honor has already been
reserved for you to recognize your steadfast support of President Bush....
It is also the annual gathering of the President's closest supporters like
you, the Republican members of the House and Senate, and our Party's
grassroots.''

The May 8 letter included the official invitation, an R.S.V.P. and
Kirkpatrick's six-digit prison number on the letter's inside address.

Kirkpatrick was "overwhelmed'' at the opportunity to be invited "to such a
prestigious event,'' according to a May 28 letter he penned to the Akron
Beacon Journal and 15 other news agencies. The inmate's letter included
Cheney's letter. ``But in my circumstances, being in prison, I find almost
nothing funnier in my 35 years.''

Also, as a convicted felon, he can't vote, though he could serve as a
congressman from Ohio.

Cheney wrote that if Kirkpatrick couldn't make it, he would ``hope (that
Kirkpatrick) will serve as an Honorary Co-Chairman of The Dinner and help
us maintain and increase our Republican majority in the U.S. House and
regain our majority in the U.S. Senate.''

Republican operatives were quick to deflect questions about how an
invitation from the vice president to attend one of the party's biggest and
highest-profile fund-raisers could make it into the hands of a convicted
cocaine possessor in an Ohio prison.

Spokespeople from the Ohio Republican Party and the White House referred
comment to the National Republican Congressional Committee, saying they had
nothing to do with the president's dinner. The NRCC raised nearly $70
million last year for congressional campaigns.

Ann Womer Benjamin, who is the Republican candidate in the 17th
Congressional District, which includes parts of Summit, Portage, Trumbull
and Mahoning counties, is expected to be a big beneficiary of the NRCC's
fund-raising efforts because the party has targeted the district in November.

Benjamin's campaign declined to comment yesterday.

NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said Monday the organization did send the letter
to Kirkpatrick, but it was a faux pas.

"It clearly was a mistake,'' he said. "It was a P.O. box. We obviously
didn't know it was a P.O. box for a state penitentiary.''

He said Kirkpatrick could have been on a mailing list the party bought from
another source. He said "a lot'' of invitations went out to the June 19
dinner, but he didn't have an exact number.

"Typically, you buy prospecting lists from other groups,'' he said. Party
workers "are going back to find where he was, but they haven't found it yet.''

While Democrats admitted that the letter was certainly a mistake, they
couldn't resist having some fun anyway.

"It looks like the Republican Party believes you can't get out of jail
free,'' said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jenny
Backus. "You just have to pay $200.''

No word if convicted felon Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Poland, who has
voted with Republicans on several issues, will receive a similar letter if
he's sentenced to prison later this month.