It is actually becoming rather entertaining to see newspaper after newspaper across the Commonwealth lay into Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli for their ethically challenged dealings with Star Scientific, including receive thousands of dollars of gifts. The latest newspaper to get in on the beat down is the News Leader. Here are highlights from the paper's editorial:
Political power and prestige can blind those who achieve it. Surely, Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in less frantic days, knew better than to get so chummy with Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams.
Since ethical problems in their relationships with Williams were first revealed last month, episode after episode has made us question McDonnell and Cuccinelli’s judgment.
Williams had already lavished McDonnell with $100,000 worth of campaign travel on his private jet and $9,600 worth of food, lodging and entertainment.
Most educated people would have agreed that accepting money to pay the catering tab crossed too many lines, especially since the giver was filing suit against the Commonwealth.
That’s where Attorney General Cuccinelli’s repeated lapses come in. In 2011, Star Scientific filed a lawsuit against Virginia, after the state assessed sales and use taxes on tobacco-curing barns it owned in Mecklenberg. Cuccinelli said he wasn’t aware of the suit – though he and Williams are personal friends – when a few months after its filing, he bought almost $10,000 worth of Star Scientific stock to add to the approximately $10,000 he already owned. By law, the Attorney General was required to report his holding of that stock, but he did not for a year, because he said he didn’t realize the value exceeded the $10,000 threshold.
Conflicts of interest are not easy to avoid when raising millions of dollars to get elected. But avoided they must be. Our governor and attorney general should have been wiser, all the way around.
As arrogant as Cuccinelli is now, should he be elected in November to the Governor's mansion, I suspect what we've seen to date would pale compared to the egomaniac would do as governor. Virginia does not need a corrupt extremist as governor.
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