As of the latest campaign finance filings, the National Republican Congressional Committee reported having a net $4.1 million in the bank. This number compared with the net $33.8 million held by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at last tally.

It's worth noting that although the NRCC faced worse than an 8-to-1 net cash-on-hand disadvantage against the DCCC as of the end of January, that spread does not include the nearly $1.3 million the committee spent in an unsuccessful effort to save the seat vacated by former House Speaker Denny Hastert (as much of that spending occurred in February and thus will be reported in about a week). What it did apparently include, however, was a whole lot of money that the NRCC didn't actually have.

In what had to be a painful press release to write, the National Republican Congressional Committee -- representing the party taking some hits in recent years for its record on fiscal management and competence -- acknowledged today that Chris Ward, a longtime employee and NRCC treasurer since 2003, had been fabricating financial statements to the bank and handing in "bogus audit reports" from 2002 through 2006.

This story broke last month ...but this latest news is grim.

NRCC chairman Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla, said that "evidence we have today indicates we have been deceived and betrayed for a number of years by a highly respected and trusted individual. From the moment we learned that bogus financial statements had been submitted to the bank on our behalf, we took decisive and speedy action by contacting the FBI, which opened a criminal investigation."

Cole said that an external review found that at the end of 2006, "the NRCC's actual cash on hand was approximately $990,000 less than the amount reported to the FEC. The actual cash on hand as of the NRCC's most recent FEC report for January 31, 2008 (filed on February 20, 2008) was $740,000 less than the amount reported to the FEC." [emphasis added]

Taking this stunning new revelation into account, this would mean that the NRCC is actually in a significantly bigger hole than previously projected. Specifically, the NRCC actually has $30.4 million less than the DCCC, and faces greater than a 10-to-1 disadvantage. With numbers like these and serious questions remaining about the way that the committee handles its finances, it's getting hard to see how it would be able to make up much of that difference.