Everyone knows a Hamilton County grand jury indicted Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White on March 3, 2011, on seven felony charges, including alleged voter fraud.  Almost immediately thereafter, Governor Mitch Daniels issued a statement saying White should resign, or at least step down during the criminal proceedings.  The Governor said his call was supported by every GOP statewide officeholder (Attorney General Greg Zoeller, Treasurer Richard Mourdock, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett, and Auditor Tim Berry).

Three days later, the Indianapolis Star’s Matt Tully joined the resignation cavalcade, as Indiana laid claim to a figure of national infamy, and the national Democratic Party had its poster child for Republican voting fraud hypocrisy.

As if it couldn’t get worse for White, last Friday Deputy Secretary of State, Sean Keefer, resigned, and on Monday, White’s press secretary, Jason Thomas, bounced.

White SoS?  More like White Star S.O.S.! (Google “Titanic” if you don’t know).

Today, Governor Daniels knocked another hole in the bulkhead of the foundering ship, telling the Star: 

“I just hope that all parties will try to move toward a swift conclusion, whatever that is, whether it’s an exoneration or something else,” Daniels said. “This is not just any other proceeding, because it involves the public interest, too. Whatever fast is, I hope they can move fast.”

Since the trial is already set for August 8 (meaning exoneration can’t come quicker), one must assume Daniels was politely suggesting to White that if a plea agreement is coming (“the something else”), he should take it… now. 

White’s reply on stepping down has been an insistent and combative, “Thanks, but no thanks!” 

I’m not remotely surprised. 

But unlike White’s critics, I don’t think it’s narcissism that keeps him holding on.  I don’t even think it’s narcissism plus an oversimplified notion that he’s being “picked on” because others have done comparable things but weren’t prosecuted.  (I say oversimplified because the devil is in the details of each case, and you can’t expect an immunity pass on voter fraud when you put your name on the ballot to be in charge of the Indiana Election Division). 

Instead, I wonder if  White simply sees the hypocrisy in his party mates.  He knows the facts have not changed since they were first disclosed to the very people in the Republican Party (two of whom he campaigned with) who now call for his ouster.  Maybe White is just refusing to be used at their convenience.

In the fall of 2010, I stated repeatedly that White’s criminal trial was a certainty.  That wasn’t partisan puffery; that was the inevitable conclusion anybody would have reached who took five minutes to look at the documents.  The fact White had taken steps that could constitute fraud was undisputed.  However, to prove a crime in these circumstances, you have to prove intent.  As every first-year law student knows, intent is a jury question.  Accordingly, one’s assessment of White’s situation pre-election had to hinge on a simple question:  do you believe him?

Given that neither the Governor nor any of Charlie’s ticket mates publicly asked him to step downed before the election, we might surmise that either:  (1)  they believed him; or (2) they thought there was a good chance he was  lying, but they cared more about preserving the Secretary of State’s chair for the GOP than they cared about the prospect of our state getting a national black eye for electing a potential felon who would have to step down in shame.

If you’re White, what you know is nothing has changed except an indictment that everyone should have seen coming.  But that indictment failed to reveal even one new and damning fact.   

But here’s one.  In December of 2010, Daniels met with White and urged him not to assume the office until his legal case was settled.  Think about that.  Criminal trials, especially when they go to jury, can take a long time.  Yet when the bi-partisan special prosecutors were named on October 12, 2010, did Daniels go public then?  Did he let Hoosiers know that he viewed the situation seriously enough even before White was indicted that he was going to ask White, if elected, to not take office until his legal troubles resolved?  Did Daniels tell the public his expectation that someone they might elect could end up not serving for most of the first year (or more) of his term? 

Why would he?  He probably figured White would get elected, stand down per Daniels’ request, get indicted, and resign.  Daniels would then pick White’s successor, as he’s permitted by Indiana law to do when there’s a vacancy in a statewide office. 

[As a quick aside, the Indiana Democratic Party filed a lawsuit claiming White was not properly on the ballot because his voter registration form was invalid.  This case is pending in Marion County, and if IDP's argument is accepted, the next highest vote getter, Democratic Secretary of State candidate Vop Osili, would become our new Secretary of State.  Expect an all-out, to-the-Indiana-Supreme-Court legal war on this one, folks!].

In any event, White audibled out of Daniels’ selected play (forget the pardon now, Charlie!), and he’s guaranteed that GOP criticism will become increasingly shrill while outpacing that of Hoosier Democrats (who also called for White’s resignation).   

Why?  Because every day White defiantly clings to office, and every time “Charlie White goes Charlie Sheen” on camera (to steal a gem from WRTV-6 political vet, Norm Cox), it takes the Indiana GOP off message and casts a pall over the entire party. 

And we’re not talking low-watt,  guilt-by-association damage akin to how Tim Durham’s connection to the Marion County GOP  injured that party’s 2010 prospects (though Indianapolis  Mayor Greg Ballard is taking shots for hosting a fundraiser for White after his out-of-district representation was well-chronicled). 

This is much deeper.  After all, while we cannot fault Governor Daniels or any GOP office holder for White’s actions and ill-advised words, can we absolve the Governor and the GOP of knowing but not saying? 

The GOP leaders built their Frankenstein monster and failed to warn the villagers until the damage was done.  How can they be astonished now that he won’t play nice as his creators come to torch him?  And, more importantly, how can they not expect the villagers to be angry?