ALGOP Triangulates Ethics Issue of Paragon With Attack on Democrats
After Governor Riley dispatched the state plane to editorial page editor offices and holds a rare press conference on his Paragon Source contract, the Alabama GOP follows up the triangulation of their own growing scandal with a cheap assault on Democrats.
The ALGOP video cleverly omits the names and faces of three Republican Jefferson County Commissioners who have plead guilty or been indicted in the same Jefferson County scandal…Mary Buckalew, John Katapodis and Gary White.
The ALGOP also omits these critical facts about ethics:
· It was a Democratic Legislature and a Democratic Governor that created the Alabama Ethics Commission and wrote the Ethics Law.
· Republican Governor Bob Riley himself vetoed an ethics bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Marcel Black that unanimously passed the legislature that would have required lobbyists that lobby the Governor’s office to register with the Ethics Commission.
· Former Republican Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, Former Riley Chief of Staff Toby Roth, Lobbyist Sherri Fulford, and family member attorneys of Riley’s own family are profiting from “pass-through dollars” to law firms, Medicaid, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office.
· Republican Secretary of State Beth Chapman was taken before the Ethics Commission for holding an outside job for profit while serving in office.
· Republican Attorney General Troy King has been discussed in the vein of ethics violations and grand jury investigations.
· Former Republican Governor Guy Hunt was removed from office over ethics issues.
· Democrats have introduced and moved multiple bills through the legislature, including the Democratic House by passing for 5 years straight a PAC reform bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jeff McLaughlin.
· 70% of Sheriffs, District Attorneys, Circuit Clerks and District and Circuit Court Judges are Democrats. They risk their lives each day to bring justice and peace to our communities. This attack on the Democratic Party is an insult to their service to justice.
Any ethical failure of a Democrat or a Republican hurts our state. Adultery, corruption of any kind is an equal opportunity that entraps people of either party. The Republican leadership would rather insult others and create smoke than admit to their own shortcomings and meet Democrats halfway in creating meaningful legislation and bi-partisan solutions. Today, the Republicans threw rocks from a glass house from which they reside. Beware and be watchful in the months ahead!
This is a good statement and it's very important to note that Republicans have been involved in recent scandals as well as Democrats and that Republicans in the Legislature, and Gov. Riley, have been quite willing to use ethics as a talking point but have not been willing to get on board with legislation that might have garnered bipartisan support and actually accomplished something. The inclusion of "adultery" in this statement puzzles me a little bit. We know Republicans have a little adultery problem in other states, but is Joe Turnham setting the stage for some "hiking the Appalachian Trail" revelation about an Alabama Republican?
