Corruption Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli Style

As more and more information continues to leak out about Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his family - especially his wife, Maureen - the image that springs to mind is hogs at a trough eating up all they can grab, except in the case of McDonnell and family it is how many gifts and how much money can be secured.  While so far out of the fray in relative terms of the amount of loot secured, Ken Cuccinelli seemingly has engaged in a similar pattern of conduct with Star Scientific and its CEO, Jonnie R. Williams, Sr.  I for one hope more attention is focused on Cuccinelli as time goes by, especially in light of his continued view of himself as being above the laws and codes of conduct that govern others.  An editorial in the Washington Post slams McDonnell and should be a warning to Cuccinelli that he needs to come fully clean as well.  Here are highlights:

“IN THESE TOUGH budget times, everybody’s got to contribute, and I intend to do our part,” Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said on the eve of his inauguration in 2010, explaining why he and his cabinet would take small pay cuts. A year later, Mr. McDonnell bragged that he had eliminated projected deficits in Virginia “by cutting spending.” And last year, touting his “fiscal prudence and conservative budgeting,” Mr. McDonnell piously hoped that Virginia’s example “would be a model for Washington.”

Yet as Mr. McDonnell was touting the virtues of public-sector austerity, his personal life was a counter-example of profligacy, irresponsibility and entitlement.

McDonnell and his family accepted upward of $200,000 in cash handouts, extravagant gifts and so-called loans — on generous terms unavailable to other mortals — from a Virginia businessman who sought the governor’s imprimatur and favorable treatment from the state for his company.

Much of it went unreported on the disclosure forms that Mr. McDonnell filed annually with the state, thanks to lawyerly maneuvering, definitional hair-splitting and slippery accounting.

Mr. McDonnell’s head-spinning hypocrisy has stained his reputation and shredded the bonds of trust that any governor must maintain with the public if he wishes to be effective and credible. It’s time for him to stop dodging hard questions and hiding behind legal niceties; it’s time for Mr. McDonnell to level with Virginians about what has become the state’s most toxic scandal in years.

Federal and state investigators are continuing to examine the McDonnell-Williams nexus for evidence of illegality, and a grand jury is hearing evidence. But the test of Mr. McDonnell’s ethical judgment and common sense is not whether he ends up facing criminal charges. The fact is, his conduct was egregious, and he owes a full accounting to the public for whom he works.

State lawmakers, most of whom have assumed a posture of stunned silence, also need to speak up. Do they not realize that Mr. McDonnell, by his actions, is rapidly recasting the state’s image for clean government?

In the face of what was clearly a pattern of improper conduct and systematic disclosure-dodging, it is inadequate to say, as Mr. McDonnell has, that he has hewn to the letter of the law.

Blue Virginia lists out a number of questionable matters involving both McDonnell and Cuccinelli.