Smafty Mac: Fighting the kakistocracy!!!

The House Small Business Committee's chief economist was charged by Capitol Police with the attempted theft of a plasma television Thursday night.

According to a Capitol Police memorandum, officers apprehended the suspect, Thomas Loo, in the Rayburn House Office Building at approximately 10 p.m. Thursday after a Financial Services Committee staff member discovered Loo removing a plasma television from a room on the building's second floor.

Daniel McGlinchey, a professional staff member of the Financial Services panel, said he entered the committee's overflow hearing room, Room 2220, shortly before 10 p.m. to retrieve items from his office, located in a connected room.

"There was this guy standing there, and on a dolly there was something large wrapped in cardboard," McGlinchey said in a telephone interview. "He seemed a little surprised to see me."

McGlinchey said he at first assumed the man, who was dressed "casually," was removing items from an earlier reception or other event in the hearing room. But when McGlinchey proceeded to enter his office, he looked back and noticed that the man, who had begun to remove the dolly from the room, seemed "agitated."

"Then I noticed the plasma TV on the wall is not there," said McGlinchey, who proceeded to follow the suspect.

"I went out to the hallway and said, `Is that our TV?," McGlinchey recalled. "What are you doing with our TV?"

According to McGlinchey, Loo's response was unintelligible and he continued to wheel the dolly toward a nearby elevator. "He was walking down the hall really fast, and I said, `You're not leaving with that TV until we talk to the police," he added.