The Alabamafication of America

As long time readers know, early in my legal career I worked at a large corporate law firm in Mobile, Alabama.  When I first started work, George Wallace was still governor and the state, while reactionary in some ways, was more progressive that it is today and its government worked and constant scandal did not surround every branch of the state's government.  Now, Alabama is a basket case and lunacy prevails, thanks largely to the ascendancy of the Christofascist.  Simply put, logic, reason, and good government are mutually exclusive of Christofascists in control of public institutions and setting social and governmental policy.  As a piece in Harvard Political Review argues, the forces that have ravaged Alabama are now destroying the nation as a whole.  Here are article highlights:

The 2016 presidential election looked, more than anything else, like an Alabama election. Donald Trump’s relentless appeals to populist conservative ideas echo decades-long trends in the South. The current worries about Trump’s irresponsible governing style are similar to concerns Alabama commentators have been expressing about their often-demagogic leaders since before the 1940s. To understand the Trump administration, in which Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions will likely serve as attorney general, we should look to Alabama, and the reasons why the state government is teetering toward collapse.

Leaders in all three branches of Alabama’s government are either under investigation or have been recently removed from office. After using his position to obtain over $1.1 million in financial favors, Mike Hubbard, the former speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, was convicted of 12 felony corruption charges in July 2016. He has been described by many as “the most powerful man in Alabama,” a state where the governor has relatively little authority and the legislature holds all the cards—a simple majority is all that is required to override most vetoes. The Hubbard trial was full of fireworks, including testimony from former Governor Bob Riley, but ended in a sentence of only four years in prison.

The drama of the Hubbard case stirred up another scandal which otherwise might have gone unnoticed. Governor Robert Bentley, a man who ran his 2010 campaign on family values, divorced his wife of 50 years after allegedly having an affair with his powerful chief advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Although neither admit to a “physical affair,” sexual voicemails the governor left for Mason say otherwise.

In 2016, Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was removed from the bench for ethics violations after he ordered the state’s probate judges to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. The result has been mass confusion in courthouses across the state, several of which stopped issuing marriage licenses altogether. Moore was previously removed from the same office in 2003, after erecting a stone monument of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Judicial Building and ignoring a court order to have it removed.

Montgomery, the state capital, has become dominated by special interests, creating an environment where corruption is the norm. Far-right swings in the electorate have enabled extremists like Moore to come to power. But the forces destabilizing Alabama are not unique to the state. Donald Trump’s cabinet selections suggest that moneyed interests will be given influence in the federal government, and that far-right voices, like Steve Bannon, will be given a stage. Montgomery’s fate may be Washington’s future.

The lesson is simple: populism rises above all other concerns in Alabama. Demagoguery has a long track record of success in the South, and a politician who sufficiently channels that energy can say and do most anything—“grab them by the pussy,” for example—and still win by a landslide. George Wallace’s racism cost Alabama millions in economic development and outside investment, yet his populist appeal won elections. He served several nonconsecutive terms as governor, including one as late as the 1980s.

Why is Alabama, a place known for social conservatism, evangelical Christianity, and strong emphasis on family values, a hotbed for corruption and sex scandals, where removal from office serves to prove one’s conservative bona fides? To Fording, the answer lies in Alabama’s traditionalistic culture, a hierarchical system where citizens fall in line with authority and accept “an elite class entitled to power.” This results in low rates of citizen participation.

Religion is an important tenet of traditionalism. . . . “the Evangelical church is not concerned with social justice.” Personal ethics are also not important—“Southern Baptists have one of the highest divorce rates in the U.S. When it comes to premarital sex and children out of wedlock, Alabama doesn’t do well.” This leaves only theology, which Flynt sees as strict adherence to the text of the Bible.

Despite his public failures in social and personal ethics, Trump, like Moore, gives off strong traditionalist airs. He may not know the books of the bible, but his strong stance against Islam is a classic evangelical stance—traditionalist Christians stand up to those that do not accept the text of the bible, a pillar of traditionalist Christianity.

The root of Alabama’s unusually toxic political climate dates back to the anti-populist movement orchestrated by plantation owners and industrialists which culminated in the Constitution of 1901. While an anti-populist force and Donald Trump may seem antithetical, the political strategy used in 1901 remains relevant today.

Following the Civil War, Alabama industrialized rapidly. Wealthy “Bourbon” Democrats, worried about labor insurrections, called for a new constitutional convention to cement their interests and power. While the suppression of the black vote figured largest in convention (John B. Knox, president of the convention, opened by saying: “And what is it that we do want to do? Why, it is, within the limits imposed by the Federal Constitution, to establish white supremacy in this State”), the suppression of the white populist vote was important as well.

After the 2013 Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act, Southern states promptly started to pass voter ID laws. There is plenty of evidence that voting fraud is negligible, but politicians claimed that it was a pressing issue, and capitalized on those fears to pass legislation that previously would have been struck down as a civil rights abuse. Recently, Alabama has closed DMV offices in largely poor, black, Democratic counties, curbing access to driver’s licenses just as the strict new voter ID law came into practice. The move has been defended as necessary to balance the budget.

Trump’s recent claim that millions voted illegally fits soundly into this tradition. His statements are already changing perceptions of facts—about half of Americans believe that voter fraud is at least somewhat widespread. Trump’s prowess in media, coupled with a chance to fill vacant seats in the Supreme Court, leaves little to prevent Alabama-like changes in election law.

Alabama columnist Kyle Whitmire warned this past May that Donald Trump was part of what he called the “Alabamafication of America.” Like Alabama, America is full of promise, great ideas, and diverse people. But it is in danger of the same fate as the Yellowhammer state, hit with scandal after scandal until its citizens lose hope.

Jeb Bush's Reformer Myth

Jeb "Jebbie" Bush - who is campaigning without using his last name when possible - is trying to (a) market himself as a "reformer" and (b) trying to distance himself from his brother's disasters Iraq and Afghanistan (and the 2008 financial meltdown).   In reality, Jebbie is offering little more than a warmed over version of his brother, the Chimperator's, failed policies.  Indeed, he is even surrounding himself with many of the same failed advisers as his brother, including those who took the nation into the Iraq War disaster.  A piece in Politico looks at the myth that Jebbie is spinning that he is a reformer.  The true picture is that Jebbie surrounded himself with cronies and corrupt individuals and even appointed a far right Christian extremist to head up the state Department of Children and Families.   And in the area of justice, young blacks had a mysterious pattern of dying in state custody.  Here are excerpts:

In his highly touted speech on government reform this week, Jeb Bush accused President Barack Obama of waiting too long to remove tainted appointees, saying he would take on “Mount Washington” in the same way he made “Mount Tallahassee” more accountable when he was governor of Florida.

But Bush’s eight-year record shows he often stood by appointees who were mired in scandal or mismanagement until long after damaging revelations emerged, and in only three reported instances clearly fired agency heads — including one in the wake of a sexual harassment allegation and another who was implicated in a kickback scheme.

Meanwhile, Bush stood behind embattled appointees at the Department of Children and Families — even amid revelations that the agency lost track of 515 children under state care, including a child who was murdered. He supported his corrections chief throughout a scandal involving guards engaging in beer-soaked brawls, stealing state property, selling steroids and impressing inmates into forced labor. Bush finally fired the prison chief, Jimmy Crosby, in early 2006 when it became clear he was part of a bribery and kickback scheme, for which he was later convicted.

The problems and controversies in running Florida government plagued Bush’s predecessors and successors. Even Bush’s critics acknowledge that his administration was hardly unique in having its share of scandals and managerial failures. But, they say, Bush is trying to rewrite history by suggesting he was far more willing to be held accountable than other political leaders.

Ron McAndrew, a Florida Republican who once backed Bush and had served as the warden of Florida State Prison, scoffed at Bush’s comment that he cracked down on “incompetence or scandalous behavior.”

“Jeb Bush has excellent experience with political hacks and crooks because he surrounded himself with them,” McAndrew, who was succeeded as prison warden by Jimmy Crosby, told POLITICO. “He has little experience with real accountability, taking responsibility or firing people who needed to be fired.”

Data breaches, but not hacking, happened on Bush’s watch in Florida as well. In 2006, the Florida Department of Management Services reported that the personal information of about 100,000 state employees was improperly sent to a subcontractor in India by the Convergys Corp.

The Bush administration at the time promised to strengthen security measures and monitor the case. But Convergys kept its $350 million contract despite other troubles managing the state’s human-resources system. Bush’s DMS agency head at the time, Bill Simon, kept his job and now heads a nonprofit political committee backing Bush’s presidential bid.

McAndrew, the former prisons chief, said he warned Bush officials not to pick Crosby as his successor because he was part of its corrupt culture, along with his longtime friend and ally, Allen “A.C.” Clark.  But Bush supported Crosby and Clark through various questionable activities.

One of the state legislators, Miami Republican Rep. Gus Barreiro, said at the time that FDLE agents seemed “more concerned about the critics of the boot camp than with the officers who beat Martin Anderson to death.”

[S]tate legislators accused the head of the Department of Juvenile Justice, which oversaw the boot camps, of lying to them as they investigated Martin’s death. Some called for the ouster of DJJ Secretary Anthony Schembri. Bush publicly supported him. One of Schembri’s predecessors at the agency, Bill Bankhead, had taken a different tack and quietly resigned in 2004 when another teen, Omar Paisley, died in agony from an untreated ruptured appendix in a state lockup where he was denied medical care.

Amid criminal investigations, dismissals of lower-level DJJ employees and public hearings, Bush stood by Bankhead.

Bush’s willingness to stand behind his DJJ appointees mirrored his posture after the disappearance of another child in state care, 5-year-old Rilya Wilson, rocked Bush’s Department of Children and Families in 2002.

Wilson’s death came after DCF case workers placed her in the care of a woman named Geralyn Graham, despite Graham having a history of fraud and having been diagnosed as psychotic. A case worker falsified reports and lied about having checked on Wilson in Graham’s care. By the time another DCF case worker took over the case, Wilson was gone. More than a decade later, Graham was convicted of torturing and murdering the child.

To replace Kearney, Bush tapped an Oklahoma official named Jerry Regier. A co-founder of the Christian conservative Family Research Council, Regier had once written that parental corporal punishment was acceptable — even if it left “bruises or welts” — statements that provoked swift criticism when Bush named him to head the child-welfare agency.

But Bush stood firmly behind him. Then, in August 2004, Regier announced his resignation after a scathing inspector general’s report criticized him for accepting gifts from lobbyists and for running an agency in which top administrators awarded big contracts to friends.

Presumed Closet Case, GOP's Aaron Schock Draws More Ethics Questions

Michelle Bachmann's lisping, limp wrist husband "Marcia" Bachmann represents one type of closeted gay.  GOP Congressman Aaron Schock represents the gym rat, style conscious type who wants to always be the center of attention.   Now, with his "Downton Abbey" office makeover gift and a questionable real estate transaction that sounds like something Bob and Maureen McDonnell might have engaged in, Schiock is getting more attention than he wanted.  The New York Times looks at his growing problems, including his now former aid who compared blacks to escaped zoo animals.  Here are highlights:

WASHINGTON — Aaron Schock was 27 years old, a fresh-faced and ambitious Republican from Peoria, Ill., when he joined Congress in January 2009. Today, Representative Schock has earned a reputation — not for legislating, but for his ripped ab muscles, shirtless poses, racy Instagram account and, now, a Capitol Hill office decorated like a drawing room from “Downton Abbey.”

But Mr. Schock’s troubles may go deeper than the blood-red color of his freshly painted office walls.

The congressman confessed Friday that he has “had better weeks.” Monday brought mocking revelations in the Style section of The Washington Post that a firm named Euro Trash had donated the office makeover — complete with a crystal chandelier, gilded mirrors and a spray of pheasant feathers. A government watchdog group promptly demanded an ethics inquiry. The congressman, now 33, said he would pay for the work.

On Thursday, Mr. Schock’s communications director, Benjamin Cole — at 38, the resident grown-up in the office — was forced to quit over racially charged Facebook posts comparing black people to escaped zoo animals engaging in “mating rituals.” 

By Friday, Mr. Schock was denying accusations that he had sold his home in 2012 to a political donor for more than its market value.

This is not the first time Mr. Schock has drawn unwanted attention. In May 2012, an independent congressional ethics board found “substantial reason to believe” Mr. Schock violated federal law in soliciting a $25,000 donation to a political action committee. The House Ethics Committee investigated but took no formal action.

The questions about Mr. Schock’s real estate transaction, first raised by the liberal-leaning website Blue Nation Review, involve the 2012 sale of his home in Dunlap, Ill., to a company linked to a contributor, Gloria L. Bahaj, whose husband, Ali, is a former executive at Peoria-based Caterpillar, the construction equipment giant.

According to Peoria County Assessor records, Mr. Schock sold the property for $925,000; the real-estate website Zillow estimated at the time of the sale that the property was worth $819,000. Mr. Schock told reporters in Peoria on Friday that he had built the home on speculation before coming to Congress, that the transaction was handled by a real estate agent, that he had never spoken to the buyer and that the sale price was “right in line” with comparable homes in the neighborhood.

Since 2008, campaign finance records show, Ali and Gloria Bahaj and Caterpillar have donated a combined total of at least $191,035 to Mr. Schock and his political action committee, the GOP Generation Y Fund.

Schock's new office look

The Myth of "The Virginia Way" and the McDonnell Corruption Trial

Having lived half my life now in Virginia I am well acquainted with what often is a pretense of civility - especially in politics - when behind the veneer things are down right cut throat and dirty.  No one is more skilled in knifing you in the back than genteel Virginia belles and gentleman.  Feigned courtliness doesn't lessen the pain of the knife slipping between one's ribs.   One positive aspect of the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial is that it has perhaps once and for all destroyed the myth of "the Virginia Way" - the myth that civility and the best interests of the public are forever foremost in the minds of Virginia politicians.   The truth is that Virginia politics is a snake pit where greed and seeking advantage through any means are the norm.  A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the issue.  Here are excerpts:

No verdict is necessary in the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption case to know that the wrenching scandal is certain to change Virginia politics. It will probably get worse before it gets better.

The historic five-week trial will lay waste to the notion of the “Virginia way,” a quaint concept that elections and governance are conducted with mannered dignity by men and women who — because they have an agonizing sense of public mission — know what’s best for the rest of us.

This idea has been on life support for years, weakened by the rise of two-party competition, beginning in 1969 with the election of the state’s first modern Republican governor, Linwood Holton. The GOP wanted in on the big feed that had been reserved almost exclusively for Democrats for most of the 20th century.

Having used the poll tax and literacy tests to disenfranchise African-Americans and poor whites, Democrats kept the electorate small and manageable — and largely in the dark about their continuing manipulations of the system.

 

Favor-seeking and back-scratching — acts that a federal jury could criminalize by finding the McDonnells guilty of trading booty and bling for state support of a disputed dietary supplement — have long been the rule in Richmond.

But it wasn’t called that. Rather, it was known as “sound policy,” a way to preserve the state’s business-friendly climate — and, by extension, the control of cliquish conservative, often-prosperous politicians who did the corpocracy’s bidding.

This arrangement may have helped profits, but it didn’t always help Virginia’s people. . . . Politics was a members-only activity, the prerogative of the few. It was intentionally opaque. If the personal became public, it was dealt with swiftly and sternly.

It’s no wonder, then, that Garrett Epps, who famously chronicled the clash between Old and New Virginia in his 1977 novel, “The Shad Treatment,” now refers to his home state as the “Banana Dominion.”

Fast-forward to 2014: Not only have Virginians been told for more than a year by newspapers and prosecutors about the alleged misdeeds of the McDonnells on behalf of the fully immunized Jonnie Williams Sr., Bob and Maureen also have — as the cornerstone of their defense — shared tawdry details of their life together apart. It may be TMI — too much information — but get used to it.

Political candidates have long bared their souls, but usually according to a script. The idea is to establish a bond with voters; that they’re inclined to support the candidate who is most like them.

McDonnell mastered this. Running for attorney general in 2005 and governor four years later, he was an easygoing, typical suburban kid from Fairfax County, talking about kitchen-table issues with friends and family. Now we know the conversation apparently was conducted with flying plates.

In Virginia, political parties and the political press will now feel compelled to more closely vet candidates and officials. But the magnified scrutiny will likely extend to those who usually receive little or none: spouses and children.

The picture that emerged of the McDonnells — one painted by the prosecution and, to a lesser degree, the defense — is of a sprawling family for which gift-taking was a full-time enterprise. Living in the fishbowl that is the Executive Mansion, they availed themselves of Williams’ gaudy largesse: a Rolex watch, designer togs, five-figure checks as wedding presents, weekends at posh resorts, golf outings and sports equipment. The McDonnells chose not to notice that eventually the public would.

Next year, Virginians decide control of the House of Delegates and state Senate. Partisan redistricting will protect many seats, particularly those of Republicans, whose brand has been badly dinged by the McDonnell mess. Their tailor-made districts can’t protect them from shame.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry Is Indicted for Abuse of Power

Even as the Bob and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial (some would describe it as a tawdry circus) grinds on yet another Republican governor has been indicted by a grand jury.  This time, it's Texas' Rick Perry - the first Texas governor in nearly 100 years to be indicted on criminal charges.  As I've asked before, why does it seem that the majority of such indictments involve Republicans, especially those espousing "family values" and "Christian principles"?  Is it a form of arrogance seen among Christofascists that makes these folks see themselves above the law?  The New York Times has details on Perry's indictment.  Here are excerpts:

A grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two felony counts on Friday, charging that he abused his power last year when he tried to pressure the district attorney here, a Democrat, to step down by threatening to cut off state financing to her office. 

The indictment left Mr. Perry, a Republican, the first Texas governor in nearly 100 years to face criminal charges and presented a major roadblock to his presidential ambitions at the very time that he had been showing signs of making a comeback. 

Grand jurors in Travis County charged Mr. Perry with abusing his official capacity and coercing a public servant, according to Michael McCrum, the special prosecutor assigned to the case.

The long-simmering case has centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an elected official — Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest on a drunken-driving charge last year. Ms. Lehmberg is Austin’s top prosecutor and oversees a powerful public corruption unit that investigates state, local and federal officials; its work led to the 2005 indictment of a former Republican congressman, Tom DeLay, on charges of violating campaign finance laws.

Mr. Perry’s detractors said that his moves crossed the line from hardball politics to criminal acts that violated state laws. His aides denied that he did anything wrong and said that he acted in accordance with the veto power granted to every governor under the Texas Constitution. Ms. Lehmberg did not resign and remains in office.

The criminal indictment of the state’s chief executive shocked the Texas political world. Mr. Perry will be arraigned at a later date at the county criminal courthouse a few blocks from the governor’s mansion. 

Mr. McCrum said it was a matter of procedure that anyone charged with a felony “will have to be booked in,” including the governor. Asked if Mr. Perry would have to have a mug shot taken and be fingerprinted, he added, “I imagine that’s included in that.”

The charge of abuse of official capacity carries a prison sentence of five to 99 years, and the charge of coercion of a public servant a two- to 10-year prison sentence.

The indictment could mar the legacy of Mr. Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, as his tenure nears an end.

According to the state comptroller’s website, the governor’s office has paid his lawyer, Mr. Botsford, nearly $80,000 since June. Legal experts said that other state officials who have been accused of crimes relating to their duties have had to pay for their own defense, and this was one of the first times Texas taxpayers were paying the bill.

The last Texas governor to face criminal charges was James E. “Pa” Ferguson, who was indicted in 1917 by a Travis County grand jury on embezzlement and eight other charges. His case also involved a veto that stirred anger: Mr. Ferguson vetoed the entire appropriation to the University of Texas because it had refused to fire certain faculty members. The state Senate voted to impeach him, but he resigned first. 

 Personally, I hope Perry is convicted - along with Bob and Maureen McDonnell.  In both cases, it would be a strike against the GOP's sick version of "family values."

Bob McDonnell, Maureen McDonnell and GOP Family Values - Lies and Undisclosed Loans

Towne Bank's Will Sessoms

In some ways I was wondering why Will Sessoms, Mayor of Virginia Beach, was a witness in the corruption trial of Bob and Maureen McDonnell.  Now, it appears he was called as a witness not because of his political office but rather his position as a banker.  The Richmond Times Dispatch has focused on McDonnell's financial difficulties surrounding Virginia Beach investment properties.Now, the focus is on the loans that were undisclosed on financial statements submitted to Towne Bank and the lies Maureen McDonnell told to State Police investigators.  Here are excerpts:

Prosecutors put the mayor of Virginia Beach on the witness stand Tuesday and shifted the focus of the trial of Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen from corruption to fraud.

Shown a copy of a personal financial statement completed by the former governor, William Sessoms, Jr., president of Towne Financial Services Group, said it failed to include loans from either Jonnie Williams Sr. or Starwood Trust.

One of 14 charges against the McDonnells alleges Bob McDonnell broke the law when he submitted a personal financial statement to TowneBank in October 2012 in which he failed to disclose he owed at least $50,000 to Williams.

Sessoms helped the McDonnells and Bob McDonnell’s sister, Maureen McDonnell finance two Virginia Beach properties, one for $249,990 in 2005 and another for $722,550 in 2006.

Shown payment records for the loans, Sessoms, who said Bob McDonnell is a friend he has known since the 1980s, said that from 2009 to 2013 it appeared late fees were imposed 18 times for the smaller loan and 29 times for the larger one.

Late fees were assessed when a loan payment was 15 days late. Sessoms said he had several conversations with McDonnell about not letting a payment get 30 days late or it would be reported and affect his credit score.

Hagan, the state police investigator, said he and fellow investigator James Lyons interviewed the first lady on Feb. 15, 2013 to discuss an aspect of the ongoing investigation into theft from the Executive Mansion by former chef Todd Schneider.

Hagan also said the interview was to learn more about two checks -- a $50,000 payment to first lady Maureen McDonnell as well as a $15,000 check drawn on a Williams account that was written to Schneider's catering company as payment for food at the June 2011 Executive Mansion wedding reception for the McDonnells' daughter, Cailin.

Hagan testified that in the 2013 interview Maureen McDonnell said her husband had known Williams for years and had been a “friend of the family for a long time” -- having met the governor right after he left his service in the Army.

Evidence, however, suggests that McDonnell and Williams did not meet until 2009, when Williams provided the use of his private plane to help McDonnell in his run for governor.

Hagan also said that Maureen McDonnell told him that the $50,000 check she received from Williams in May 2011 was a personal loan, for which she had signed a loan agreement and had been making payments to Williams.

The investigator said that at the end of the interview he asked the first lady to produce the paperwork for the alleged loan, to which the first lady said she had signed the documents and sent them back to Williams.

Hagan testified that Mrs. McDonnell did not know before the interview that she was under investigation. Hagan testified there were no bank records showing Maureen McDonnell making payments to Williams.

There's more, but the overall picture is tawdry at best.

Shockingly Sleazy GOP Governors

With the Bob and Maureen McDonnell criminal corruption trial underway, Virginia is learning first hand about sleazy governors - and a greed driven first lady.  But Virginia does not have a monopoly on sleazy Republicans.  Rick Scott, Chris Christie, Scott Walker are certainly in the running to give the McDonnell's a run for their money in the race for the title as "sleaziest governor."  But they aren't the only GOP sleaze bags out there.  A lengthy piece in Salon looks at the dubious group that some inside the Beltway depict as contenders in 2016.  The piece deserves a full read to fully understand the nastiness of these GOP governors.  One can only fear for the country if this is the best the country can offer.  Here are a few highlights:

There is nothing in U.S. politics more powerful than Beltway conventional wisdom. No mountain of facts can put the slightest dent in it. It’s the ocean in which all of Washington swims. Which is why Chris Christie still thinks he can be president—just resurrect his “tough-talking” “truth-telling” persona, and violà! It doesn’t matter how many lies he’s told, so long as the media buys—and sells—his “truth-telling” spin, reframing the facts as just what “critics say.” And if not Chris Christie, then some other GOP governor, because it’s 1999 all over again, and national disgust with Beltway Republicans can only mean one thing: Americans must be clamoring for a GOP governor to be “a uniter, not a divider.”

There’s just one problem with this narrative: The entire current crop of GOP governors is a passel of knaves, scoundrels, extremists and panderers, whose monumental collective failures aren’t even a blip on the D.C. media’s radar screen—though they should be. Because out in the states, their failures are killing people—literally by the thousands when it comes to denying Medicaid expansion (over 13,000 in eight Southern states this year)—and may even contribute to killing the GOP’s chances of a strong showing in Congressional elections come November. Take Georgia, for example. It’s still a safe red state that Romney won by almost 8 percent in 2012, but Democrat Michelle Nunn has a decent shot at winning the Senate seat her father held for decades this November—and that would greatly complicate GOP hopes of retaking the Senate. A fair number of Beltway folks are starting to notice this, but less noticed are the possible spillover effects between Georgia’s Senate and gubernatorial races, as scandal-plagued Nathan Deal is struggling to stay afloat against Democratic challenger Jason Carter, President Carter’s grandson.

What’s Nathan Deal done, exactly? Enough to warrant the No. 1 spot in “The Worst Governors in America,” a 2013 report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The report explains the list as follows:

His inclusion stems from: (1) using his gubernatorial campaign to benefit his daughter-in-law [she was paid $40,725.03, despite having have no previous campaign experience]; (2) using his office to benefit a business partner; (3) using his office to benefit a top donor; (4) arranging a taxpayer-funded job for a political foe; and (5) obstructing ethics investigations into his business dealings.

Indeed, CREW’s report includes 18 governors, of whom 16 are Republicans, 11 of them elected in 2010, one in 2009 and one in 2012, for a total of 13 from the Tea Party wave era. They are, if anything dramatically more corrupt as a group than the governors elected before them.

[I]t would not be surprising if Deal ended up like the #3 governor on CREW’s list, Robert McDonnell, once touted as a top prospect for being Mitt Romney’s running mate, now former governor of Virginia, standing trial on 14 counts of felony corruption, obstruction and making false statements in federal court. CREW’s list was divided into three tiers—six “ringmasters,” six “clowns” and six “sideshows.” Joining Deal and McDonnell in the top tier are two men who’ve been touted as possible presidential candidates—Texas Governor Rick Perry (despite his laughingstock performance in 2012: “Oh look! His new glasses make him look so policy-wonk serious! Like Jerry Lewis in “The Nutty Professor”!”) and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (If Christie stays dead, Walker wins re-election and nobody else with a pulse shows up)—as well as Maine Governor Paul LePage and Florida Governor Rick Scott.

GOP policy collapsed in ruin under George W. Bush, and the only way to defend it now is blame-shifting, denial and outright hallucination. Jindal—elected in 2007—is a perfect bridge figure, making the underlying continuity perfectly clear. “He also has refused the expansion of Medicaid, that’s something you obviously have in common with many conservative governors around the country, and the result of course is that more than 250,000 low-income adults don’t have access to health coverage,” Moller added—yet another aspect of how post-Bush ideology has crystallized around being anti-other, with “other” being a catch-all category in which “atheist,” “Muslim,” “fascist,” “socialist,” “RINO,” “Beyoncé voter” and more all merge together in one big towering cloud of Sharknado menace.

There are many more GOP governors I could write about. There’s Florida Governor Rick Scott, who I’ve alluded to in passing. There’s North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who worked for Duke Energy for 29 years, received massive financial support from Duke’s PAC and executives, and appointed regulators who reached a sweetheart settlement protecting Duke from citizen lawsuits over coal ash groundwater contamination, which was only withdrawn after a staggering February 2014 spill. There’s the pugnacious Paul LePage of Maine, and South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, a pale shadow of prominent endorser Sarah Palin, who’s never lived up to her national-level hype. LePage is #2 on CREW’s list, Haley, #10. But reading CREW’s summaries of each, one gets the distinct impression that the differences are more a matter of temperament and degree than of substance or kind.

Retired Justice Stevens Condemns Majority in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission

With the sometimes exception of Justice Anthony Kennedy (particularly in the area of gay rights), the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court hold most average Americans in open contempt and have sided with the wealthy, huge corporations and GOP racists.  With its ruling in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, this majority more or less put the government up for sale to big money interests and amazingly found that huge campaign bribes contributions while one is a candidate is miraculously different than a huge bribe while in office.  The distinction, of course defies belief and common sense.  Former Justice John Paul Stevens has condemned the ruling and has suggested a constitutional amendment to protect America's democracy.  A piece in the New York Times looks at Justice Stevens' views.  Here are excerpts:

Justice John Paul Stevens, who turned 94 on Sunday, is a mild man with an even temperament. He has a reverence for the Supreme Court, on which he served for almost 35 years until his retirement in 2010, and he is fond of his former colleagues.

But there was a hint of anger in some of his remarks when I went to see him last week in his Supreme Court chambers. He said the court had made a disastrous wrong turn in its recent string of campaign finance rulings.

“The voter is less important than the man who provides money to the candidate,” he said. “It’s really wrong.”

He talked about what he called a telling flaw in the opening sentence of last month’s big campaign finance ruling. He filled in some new details about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that led to the Citizens United decision. And he called for a constitutional amendment to address what he said was the grave threat to American democracy caused by the torrent of money in politics.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. started his controlling opinion with a characteristically crisp and stirring opening sentence: “There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders.”

But that was misleading, Justice Stevens said. “The first sentence here,” he said, “is not really about what the case is about.”

The plaintiff, Shaun McCutcheon, an Alabama businessman, had made contributions to 15 candidates in the 2012 election. He sued so he could give money to 12 more. None of the candidates in the second group was running in Alabama.

Mr. McCutcheon was not trying to participate in electing his own leaders, Justice Stevens said. “The opinion is all about a case where the issue was electing somebody else’s representatives,” he said.

The occasion for our talk was Justice Stevens’s new book, “Six Amendments: How and Why We Should Change the Constitution.” One of those amendments would address Citizens United, which he wrote was “a giant step in the wrong direction.”

The new amendment would override the First Amendment and allow Congress and the states to impose “reasonable limits on the amount of money that candidates for public office, or their supporters, may spend in election campaigns.”

His own book has, in addition to the chapter on campaign finance, chapters on gun control, the death penalty, gerrymandering and aspects of state sovereignty. Each concludes with a proposed amendment.

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.

Bob McDonnell Probe Finds Tens of Thousands of Dollars of Undisclosed Items

Ken Cuccinelli isn't the only corrupt GOP politician in Virginia.  As the Washington Post reports, a federal investigation into gifts to Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell and his family reveals that the McDonnells were lined up like pigs at a trough scarfing up tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts that were conveniently not disclosed as required by Virginia law.  Combined with Cuccinelli's office assisting a big campaign donor in private, civil litigation, the picture is one of widespread corruption at the highest levels of Virginia government.  Here are highlights from the Post story:

Federal authorities are asking Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s associates about previously undisclosed gifts given by a campaign donor to McDonnell’s wife that total tens of thousands of dollars and include money and expensive designer clothing, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

The questions are part of broad federal and state investigations into gifts to the governor and his family and whether McDonnell (R) took official action on behalf of anyone who gave gifts, people with knowledge of the investigation have said.

But the people with knowledge of the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, say the scope is wider than just the wedding gift. The value and nature of additional gifts from Williams, including money provided in several checks, suggest that authorities are exploring a more extensive relationship between Williams and the McDonnells than previously revealed.

Additionally, famed Virginia socialite Patricia Kluge, who was one of the state’s wealthiest women before a dramatic and public crash during the recession, has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury to answer questions related to the McDonnells, according to people who are familiar with her summons.  It is not clear what testimony authorities will seek from Kluge, who owned a winery and vast estate near Charlottesville before losing both in the economic downturn.

As public scrutiny of his relationship with Williams has mounted, McDonnell has declined to provide a full accounting of other gifts Williams provided to members of the McDonnell family.
A local prosecutor in Richmond is conducting a parallel investigation to the federal probe to determine whether McDonnell complied with state law in his annual financial filings.

That investigation could explore whether the governor received enough benefit from gifts given to his wife — particularly loans or gifts of money — that he should have considered them gifts to himself as well.

Federal authorities are exploring whether McDonnell performed official acts to boost the company in exchange for gifts from Williams, people familiar with the inquiry have said.

It would seem that McDonnell's aspirations for national office are going to be toast.

GOP Congressman Yoder Apologizes for Swimming Nude on Israel Trip

UPDATED:  Some readers have questioned why this episode is even newsworthy.  Yoder apparently did noting illegal, after all.  All of which is true.  I believe it's newsworthy is because Yoder represents a far right district filled with constituents how disapprove of drinking, not to mention full nudity in mixed company. They also condemn many other things that aren't illegal not the least of which is homosexuality.  It's not about the legality of what Yoder did.  It's all about the hypocrisy of folks like Yoder who put on one face for their bigoted constituents yet act differently when they think they are out of public view.

Why is it almost always the Republican elected officials that get caught doing this type thing?  I guess Congressman Kevin Yoder (pictured at left) can say in his defense he wasn't doing any toe tapping in a rest room stall and that apparently no minors were on the excursion where the nude swimming took place.  Unfortunately, Yoder is running unopposed for his Kansas congressional seat so no opponent can have fun with this bit of naughty behavior (at least naught in the minds of the Christianist who seem to control Kansas).  Interestingly, Virginia's prince of darkness, Eric Cantor, was apparently part of the group although he seems to have refrained from the nude swimming.  Here are highlights from the Kansas City Star:

U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas apologized to his constituents Sunday night after a published report revealed the freshman lawmaker swam nude in the Sea of Galilee during a private fact-finding trip to the Mideast last August.

Politico reported the incident in a story on its website Sunday. The website said the FBI investigated the trip, which included other lawmakers and their spouses, as well as staff members.

It was not immediately clear what the FBI might have examined in relation to the trip. Yoder and his chief of staff, Travis Smith, said neither the Republican congressman nor any members of his staff had talked to the FBI.

But the revelation of the incident could prove embarrassing for Yoder. In its story, Politico said it was told privately that alcohol may have been involved in the incident, which took place the evening of Aug. 18, 2011. Smith said the congressman had wine at dinner but was not drunk.  Yoder, 36, admitted he dove into the sea "without a swimsuit."

Politico said Yoder was the only person to remove all his clothes. His wife, Brooke, accompanied him on the trip, but she did not swim.

The trip, said to have been open only to those 18 and over, was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, according to a database of travel records maintained by Legistorm.com. The trip lasted from Aug. 13 to Aug. 21 last year, the record show, and cost the foundation $20,087 for Yoder and his wife's travel, lodging, meals and other expenses.

Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/yoder-apologizes-for-swimming-nude-in-sea-of-galilee/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/yoder-apologizes-for-swimming-nude-in-sea-of-galilee/#storylink=cpy

In its story, Politico said 20 lawmakers and staff members were believed to have jumped in the waters of the Sea of Galilee, out of roughly 30 on the trip. It reported that Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the senior Republican on the trip, scolded members for their behavior after the incident.  Cantor did not swim that evening, the story said.

Citing sources, the website said other freshmen swam in the sea, including Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida and his daughter, Rep. Tom Reed of New York and his wife, and Reps. Ben Quayle of Arizona, Jeff Denham of California and Michael Grimm of New York. All the lawmakers are Republicans.

Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/yoder-apologizes-for-swimming-nude-in-sea-of-galilee/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/yoder-apologizes-for-swimming-nude-in-sea-of-galilee/#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/yoder-apologizes-for-swimming-nude-in-sea-of-galilee/#storylink=cpy