Democrats Demand Cuccinelli Resign Over Star Scientific Scandal; Did McDonnell Lie About Star Scientific Gift?

It seems that Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli and Bob McDonnell are becoming increasingly ensnared in the web of conflicts of interest and failures to disclose financial interests and gifts.

I noted the other day how the Virginian Pilot ran a scathing editorial calling for Ken Cuccinelli to resign from the office of attorney general.  As noted before, Cuccinelli has been ripping of Virginia tax payers and using state employees as campaign workers - not to mention drawing his own salary while spending almost all of his time campaigning.  Now, with the Star Scientific scandal picking up steam, it is even more appropriate that Cuccinelli resign.  I suspect Cuccinelli will resist as long as possible so that he can maximize the money he rips off from Virginia taxpayers who have no desire to fund his campaign.  As Blue Virginia reports, some leading Democrats have had enough og Cuccinelli's sleazy conduct and are calling openly for his resignation.  Here are excerpts:

 "More than two weeks of news accounts have revealed that Cuccinelli neglected to disclose that he owned Star Scientific stock when they sued Virginia to avoid paying up to $1.5 million in taxes, failed to recuse his office from the case and bought more Star stock after the company filed their suit against the Commonwealth...McEachin, Toscano and Herring will call on Cuccinelli to put transparency and accountability ahead of his personal ambition and resign his office." A few more highlights from the call:

Charniele Herring: Cuccinelli was not elected to use his office as a platform for his personal and ideological agenda, but unfortunately that's what he's done in the case of Star Scientific and Jonnie Williams ("deep pocketed special interests"). So, we're calling on Cuccinelli step down as Attorney General immediately. 

Donald McEachin: This issue is not a partisan issue, it's a matter of what kind of leadership Virginians deserve in their Attorney General. These are not Democratic accusations against Cuccinelli, the news has been reported by the AP, Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the Virginian Pilot. Cuccinelli has put his personal and financial interest over the interest of Virginians. 

David Toscano: Cuccinelli's "inexcusable conflict of interest" with Star Scientific goes deeper than we knew a week ago. Now, given all that we know about this scandal, Cuccinelli must resign.

Besides being liars, these "godly" men also seem to have an affinity for enriching themselves via gifts from campaign contributors and those seeking political favors.  It looks like Bob McDonnell's ludicrous lie that a $15,000 gift was to his daughter, and not himself may be about to explode in his face. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on McDonnell's apparent lies:

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has said his daughter and her husband paid for their own wedding. So a $15,000 check from a major campaign donor to pay for the food at the affair was a gift to the bride and groom and not to him, and therefore did not have to be publicly disclosed under the law, the governor says.

But documents obtained by The Washington Post show that McDonnell signed the catering contract, making him financially responsible for the 2011 event. The governor made handwritten notes to the caterer in the margins. In addition, the governor paid nearly $8,000 in deposits for the catering.  When the combination of the governor's deposit and the gift from the donor resulted in an overpayment to the caterer, the refund check of more than $3,500 went to McDonnell's wife and not to his daughter, her husband or back to the donor.

The new documents suggest that the governor was more involved with the financing of the wedding than he has previously acknowledged.

The question of who was responsible for paying the catering bill is a key one because Virginia law requires that elected officials publicly report gifts of more than $50. The law does not require the disclosure of gifts to family members.

The comments came as McDonnell faces new questions surrounding his relationship with Williams and his company, which McDonnell and his wife showcased even as they received other gifts and campaign donations. The company has revealed it is the subject of a federal securities investigation.

Williams and Star Scientific provided McDonnell and his political action committee more than $120,000 in publicly disclosed political donations and gifts.

I suspect that right now Taliban Bob is perhaps wishing that he had had a little less upscale affair for his daughter.  He and Kookinelli may think that they are above the law, but time may prove otherwise.