And who controls the Tn House rules???
The Braying Blog tries to make hay out of Rep. Delores Gresham's receipt of agricultural grant money.
Although disclosure is mandatory in the state Senate when members may receive a personal benefit, no House rule requires similar disclosure by its members.
There is nothing illegal about the grant money flowing to the Greshams’ farm or for her votes for the funding. She is in a close race with Democrat Randy Camp for the state Senate seat of retiring Sen. John Wilder, which covers Fayette and seven other counties. (emphasis added)
Apparently, the Tennessee Democrats and the Alaska Democrats really are working from the same play book as the Troopergate report on Governor Sarah Palin's also makes it clear that the governor was well within her authority to fire the Commissioner of Public Safety yet still considers her doing so an abuse of power. And so similarly Rep. Gresham hasn't violated any House rule...but it's still a violation of ethics?
Let's see, now. Who has controlled the Tennessee House, its committees and so its rules for, gosh how long now? That's right...the Democrats. Why haven't they enacted a similar rule for the House long ago?
It only matters to them now, and for the next few weeks, because they want their candidate Randy Camp to win that district seat. That's pretty convenient. If they retain a majority in the Tennessee House don't even expect them to make Job #1 enacting the Senate's ethics rules come the opening of the legislative session in January. These are the same folks whom I heard in committee hearings get distracted and whine about whether they'd have to report grass cutting money earned by their teens. They strained at a gnat in an effort to overlook the log.
If you want to make the House accountable for these kinds of grants...send Republicans to the Tennessee House by voting for them on November 4. I trust Gresham will happily comply with the new rules also.
Side note funnies: In trying to find a link to Camp's website I googled "Randy Camp vote" and the top link points you to a page of Jackson radio host Mike Slater head shots and links. Even weirder, the tag cloud on the right has Jesus and Drew Johnson (head of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research in the same font size. Does Farrakhan know about this?
1 comment:
The situation, RE: Sarah Palin, isn't actually similar at all. The Troopergate report, if you look at it, actually directly cites the ethics rule that Gov. Palin violated and goes into detail as to why it applies to her in general and in this case.
The rule, for the record, was one against the advancement of personal or financial interest by a public official, which, of course, includes the advancement of the personal interests of one's family - for instance, targeting someone because they're obstructing your path to getting back at someone who went through a nasty divorce with your sister.
The investigation just concludes that Gov. Palin didn't violate her constitutional authority or commit a crime in the process of committing this ethical violation.
(As to this meme about "Alaska Democrats" running this investigation - the vote to release the report was unanimous, and, while that doesn't mean that everyone who voted to release it agrees with its findings, one would expect the Republicans involved to vote against releasing a report that, without any legal justification whatsoever, finds that Palin abused her power.)
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