Ernie Scott Garrett's DeLay connection?

I have some homework for you.

We all know we live in a world of coincidences. However, we've come to understand that when it comes to Republicans, those coincidences should be investigated. This is where you all come in...

Now I'm no expert, but at a glance it seems like Ernie Scott Garrett is on top of his required financial filings. Take a look over at PoliticalMoneyLine and see for yourself. (You might want to keep that window open. We'll be going back.) Well, I figured that since the filings are there, I should take a look.

Hmmm. The 7/13/06 quarterly filing for the "Garrett-New Jersey Victory '06 Committee" (ack! hard for me to even type that!) Wow. Spent $5000 at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC- oh, that's right. Had to meet with Dick Cheney. Anyhoo...

How about the 7/14/06 July Quarterly filing for "Scott Garrett for Congress" (got a little vomit in my mouth from that one)? Page 64 tells me Ernie sent $2400 to Keel Systems from Spicewood, TX. No biggie, I guess. The Texas part is interesting, though. Oh. According to the Statement of Organization filed 6/2/06, it looks like Thornton Keel is also the "Custodian of Records" for the organization.

Now, call me cynical, but when I see someone from Austin, TX intimately involved in a campaign for a guy from the NJ 5th, I want to know more. (Remember what I said about coincidences? Here we go.)

Well, a quick googlization of Mr. Keel gets me this:

...The Texas Lobby Group also recruited Lara Laneri Keel, who was government affairs director of the Texas Association of Business (TAB), which faces a related grand jury probe of the $1.9 million in corporate money that it spent to influence the 2002 elections. Keel is married to a cousin of Rep. Terry Keel, the treasurer of TRM successor Stars Over Texas PAC (SOT). SOT PAC recently paid $3,000 in “management consulting fees” to another cousin of Rep. Keel. A GOP candidate for Travis County Constable, Thornton Keel became campaign treasurer for Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in April, after a nasty split between
Strayhorn and consultant George Strake...

So, Scott Garrett, recipient of $15000 ARMPAC funds from Tom DeLay, just by coincidence has a guy from Texas on his payroll who just happens (along with his entire family?) to have been intimately involved with TRMPAC and related groups.

So now it's time for your homework:

• Who is Thornton Keel?
• Of all of the people he could hire, why did Ernie choose this guy?
• What else is buried in Ernie's filings?

Oh, and one last question- WHERE IS SCOTT?