North Carolina Republican state Rep. Stephen LaRoque is in hot water over allegations that he used $8 million in federal small business startup grants as a slush fund for himself, his family, and other GOP legislators. But LaRoque’s “defense” is that back in May, he launched a vitriolic rant against the state NAACP, calling it “a racist organization,” and that that’s the only reason watchdog groups are highlighting his shady business dealings today.

Here’s what NC Policy Watch, a non-partisan policy watchdog group, reported following a two-month investigation into LaRoque:

A two-month N.C. Policy Watch investigation uncovered questionable management and financial dealings over the last decade at LaRoque’s federally-funded public charities. Both of the non-profits are now housed and run under a for-profit company, the LaRoque Management Group in Kinston, that LaRoque and his brother Walter run, according to the website of the company.

Among the investigation’s findings are:

• LaRoque received $100,000 to $195,000 a year in compensation as the sole employee of the small non-profit—much more than what others running similar organizations made.
• He stacked the board of directors for his non-profits with immediate family members, a move that runs afoul of both IRS and USDA guidelines.
• He used the non-profits to loan federal money to close associates, including loans of $100,000 to $300,000 to a board member, the private law firm he uses for political lawsuits, his wife and two fellow GOP legislators.

LaRoque’s six-figure salary is three-to-six times what he promised to pay himself in his 1997 application for the federal grants, according to the report. One former board member of LaRoque’s organizations said she “was not aware that he was compensated at all.”

All told, more than $8 million in federal tax dollars have flowed through LaRoque’s operation since 1997. Half of that sum - $4 million – was loaned out improperly, according to a 2010 USDA Inspector General report.

But LaRoque is one Republican who clearly doesn’t heed his own calls for personal responsibility. Rather than offering any explanation for the flood of tax dollars allegedly flowing into his and his cronies’ pockets, LaRoque lashed out at NC Policy Watch.

LaRoque claims that NC Policy Watch is targeting him because in May (and this is true) he’d sent an email to the state NAACP calling it and its chairman “racists.” Yes, that really happened, and no, that’s not all he said:

"I have no interest in receiving anything from a Racist such as William Barber," LaRoque wrote in his reply, referring to the state president for the NAACP. "He and the NC NAACP represent everything that is wrong with race relations in our state and country. You should be ashamed of yourself for continuing to promote racism but that is the modern day legacy of the NAACP as a racist organization led by Racist individuals who are Cowards."

Barber said Friday that he was shocked by the comments, but LaRoque said he has no intention on backing off.

"I'm sick of getting these race-baiting, racist-type action alerts, e-mails, whatever you want to call them," LaRoque said in an interview at his Kinston office. "The modern-day NAACP promotes racism. That's what they're doing.” (…)

"It's time for North Carolinians to shun this type of individual."

It seems to us that it’s time for the USDA to shun Stephen LaRoque - and we're not the only ones who think so.