A choirboy image won’t hold up against the story of a GOP scandal that stained the hand of any person who was in touch with it

This is a succinct version of recent events in the Malcolm Smith case according to Celeste Katz: “Former GOP honcho Vince Tabone has lawyered up -- and his new rep says the ex-operative will beat the bribery charges against him.”

Ms. Katz’ wordier version went on like this:  “On the same day U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara raged against a pervasive corruption culture he said can only be changed through wholesale reform, Tabone's attorney called her client a "pillar" of his community who will be vindicated by the truth. ***  Tabone, former vice-chairman of the Queens County Republican Party, is charged with accepting payoffs to help state Sen. Malcolm Smith score a pass into the GOP mayoral primary while remaining a Democrat. ***  Lawyer Deborah Misir pushed back against characterizations of Tabone as a greedy, self-impressed hack in the wake of the federal case, which also resulted in charges against [State Senator Malcolm] Smith, Queens City Councilman Dan Halloran, former Bronx GOP Chairman Jay Savino and the mayor and deputy mayor of Spring Valley.” (See “Lawyer: Vince Tabone Will Be Exonerated By Truth In Alleged Pay-To-Play Mayor's Race Plot” by Celeste Katz, 4/22/13, NY Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/04/lawyer-vince-tabone-will-be-exonerated-by-truth-in-alleged-pay-to-play-mayors-]).

This quote by Tabone’s lawyer: “Vince Tabone was an unpaid Republican Party volunteer, one of eight unpaid party Vice-Chairmen on the 59 member party Executive Committee of the Queens Republican Party.  He never received a salary, pension or benefits for the thousands of hours he spent as a political party volunteer....” probably won’t get much mileage, and the rest of the “choirboy” defense would probably work only on a handful of jurors in federal court.