The piece I wrote yesterday about the scandalous conduct of the Service Employees International Union has been rendered obsolete already — they’ve had yet another scam unmasked.

This one comes out of their Los Angeles chapter. Four years ago, they set up a non-profit foundation called the “Long Term Care Housing Corporation” to develop housing for low-income workers who care for the elderly. There are no official ties between the SEIU and the LTCHC, of course. Unofficially, the SEIU is the only source of the LTCHC’s income; their offices are within the SEIU’s headquarters,  and nearly every director of LTCHC is also a union official — but the union and the foundation are officially separate. To get a real handle on what the LTCHC is up to, one needs examine how much of the foundation’s income is spent on its stated goal.

A good rule of thumb for charities is that overhead should take up no more than 30% of total revenue. The smaller the percentage, the better the charity. For example, the Salvation Army routinely runs below 10%.

So, how did the LTCHC do? Over the last two years, “overhead” ate up 100% of total income.

That’s right. In the last two years, they have not spent a single penny on housing for low-income workers.

There’s an old aphorism that says “never ascribe to maliceto that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” In this case, though, stupidity or incompetence or inefficiency simply can’t be stretched far enough to credibly cover this bald fact: the LTCHC has, over the last two years, been a “Roach Motel” for money: checks check in, but they don’t check out.

It seems that the officials of the SEIU have never heard of the first rule of holes: “when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” More and more of their corrupt practices keep coming to light, but instead of pulling a preventive measure and trying to clean up their own house before it’s too late, they retrench, double down, and defy anyone to look at them cross-eyed.

Maybe there is a method of their madness. Maybe they’re hoping to simply stall things until January 20, when their chosen candidate, Barack Obama, takes office and — they hope — subtly let’s the Departments of Justice or Labor know to keep their distance .

The frightening thought is: they might have a winning plan there.