Sunday morning musings on a seeming oxymoron: ethics and morality in politics
By Ozboy
There are two articles in this morning's SL Tribune that deal with ethics and morality - or the lack thereof - in our less than esteemed State Legislature.
The first is about a scam centered on Charter Schools and the legislator/hustlers that are raking in big bucks at the tax payers expense. See it here: GOP scammers
And another great Rebecca Walsh piece on ethics, or lack thereof, in our Legislature. Check it out here:
What stinking ethics?
My favorite quote from the Walsh piece comes from our state's leading Democrat - Dimitrich - who for all the world comes across as a Utah Republican. When asked about his own $7,000 take of swag from favor seekers, good old - I never saw a bribe I didn't like Mike - says:
"I guess ethics belongs to the individual."
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13 comments:
Oz:
Elected officials who put their votes up for the sale are, of course, in both parties. But in the nature of things, there will be more votes for sale... and the going price will be higher... in the party in power [state or nation] than in the minority party. Given that the Democrats in Utah cannot summon enough legislative votes in either house to even prevent the over-ride of a Governor's veto, fewer Democratic votes will be bought than Republican ones.
Of course, good Yellow Dog Democrat that I am, I'd also argue that even when Democrats are in power in a state house or at the national level, the level of corruption [while it will all but inevitably increase since the price bid for their votes by K Street types will rise dramatically] will still be lower than when Republicans are in. It's not Democratic governors, after all, who are paid fat fees to travel to resorts to give speeches about "Is Greed Good?" And it's especially not Democratic governors who answer that question "yes."
PS Best political quip heard in Louisiana last week: a state judge was being interviewed on the radio, and he was asked about Rep. William Jefferson [D-La], currently a "person of interest" as they say in bribery investigations and expected to be tried for it, in no small part because of the 10K found in the freezer of his office refrigerator, I think. The judge's reply: "I think Mr. Jefferson is very confident that he will win when he goes to trial. He's ordered a bigger freezer."
By the way, the Judge is a Democrat.
Curmudgeon
Greed and sociopathic tendancies know no racial, national, sexual or political boundaries. Power corrupts as the saying goes.
Fool that I am, I do cling to the hope that power really only corrupts the corruptible, and that we still have people in the political and bureaucratic worlds that are not corruptible.
Here is another example of politicians going bad going on in Detroit.
We did not do "IT"
I am interested in your take on this one Mr. Curmudgeon. It seems like the good Mayor in this case is getting damn close to some sort of ethical line in his private life that effects his ability to govern, que no?
In view of your previous positions vis-a-vis one's personal life has no bearing on their ability to govern well, how does this one wash?
By the way, I had an inside view of ethics at work in Mayor Coleman Young's office in Detroit in 1980. A real eye opener.
At last, An honest man!
"Near as I can tell, a single Utah politician has come clean: North Logan Republican Rep. Jack Draxler, a self-employed appraiser who accepted $235 in Utah State football tickets and paid himself $6,300 from campaign funds for lost wages while he's lawmaking in Salt Lake City.
'There are plenty of sacrifices,' Draxler says. 'You could call those football tickets - well, you could call them a perk.'"
Wherever I go, people in other states seem to get a lot more for their tax money than I get in Utah.
It won't change until the locals stop believing that if their legislator used to be the bishop, he must be honest.
The quickest way to have this change would be for some speeches at LDS General Conference hammering the idea of honesty, instead of the constant calls for "service, service and more service."
The way it is now, a great many people think it's okay to lie and steal as long as you make sure your home teaching gets done.
That this LDS state could be so mired in pornography, child abuse, divorce, and political corruption is something I lay at the feet of the local religious leaders.
They talk about these things very little. I don't know why it is so.
Be grateful for Jesus and find somebody to help, over and over. But nobody ever tells me in church to be honest and to tell the truth. I have to figure that one out for myself.
A prime example of a charter school idea gone awry is Da Vinci Academy in Ogden.
Utah taxpayers gave Ogden City some $900,000.00 in a Utah State grant to acquire the American Can property to build Da Vinci Academy/Riverside Technology High School.
The Federal government, which is another source paid for by taxpayers' dollars, kicked in another $2 plus million for a parking garage for the school.
I won't go into all the dirty financial double dealing details but the bottom line is that Da Vinci Academy owns nothing and pays $19,000.00 rent per month on the building they were intended to own which is again paid for by stupid Utah taxpayers.
Mayor Matthew Goidfrey and his hoodlums masterminded this scheme so that the property was actually sold by a non-existent legal entity, Riverside Technology Non-Profit Foundation, in December 2006 to the Ogden Community Foundation which was being operated out of the Mayor's office.
After much effort on Rep. Neil Hansen's part the Utah State Auditor did do a partial audit on the American Can property fiasco which culminated in the Ogden Community Foundation being moved from the Mayor's office and becoming a a true private non-profit so now taxpayers have no access to any information on the property deal.
If anybody deserves to go to jail for manipulation of public funds it is Mayor Godfrey and the City employees Godfrey used to pull this stunt off.
Oz:
Thanks for the link. The key point for me leading to the conclusion that Detroit's Hizzonah should resign is the boldfaced section below:
"The sexually charged messages between Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty explicitly indicated that a romantic relationship did exist between them despite their denials under oath during last summer's police whistleblower trial.
He perjured himself under oath in a criminal trial. That would do it for me. [Since this inevitably raises the matter of Mr. Clinton's cannodling with Ms. Lewinski, let me note the difference that matters IMHO: Clinton hid his adultery in a deposition involving a civil suit brought against him, not a criminal action. Both were wrong. But only one... perjury committed in testimony in a criminal trial... rises to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" justifying impeachment. The Mayor should resign, and if he does not resign, if Detroit city has an impeachment provision or recall provision, it ought to be invoked. In fact, presuming the Mayor is a Democrat, his own party should do the invoking. One rule. One law. In office or out. My guys or the other guys. Makes no difference.
If the Mayor had simply been availing himself of the services of the apparently compliant Ms. Beatty, it would have been unethical [she works for him], embarrassing and downright dumb, but not grounds for resignation or recall.
I don't know if this is the right place, but I met Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley many times. He was a great man and will be sorely missed.
Danny:
Why not?
Looking at Mr. Hinckley as a non-LDS outsider, who before he moved here could not have told you who was president of the LDS Church on a bet, seems to me he was a good-hearted man, with a disarming sense of humor that served him and his church well, and that in his presidency he went a considerable way to diminish the kind of prickly defensiveness [if not downright hostility] toward other-thinking people that has, sadly, I think sometimes characterized the church's leaders in the modern period. [E.g. the presidency of Ezra Taft Benson perhaps.]
I think Hinckley would have been an interesting man to have sat down to dinner with. And there are not many American religious leaders I can say that about. Not many at all.
Curmudgeon
During most of the nine year presidency of Ezra Taft Benson he was incapacitated and Gordon Hinckley, as his councilor, effectively ran the Church. Before Benson we had president Kimball who was also pretty infirm for a great deal of his 12 years in office. Gordon Hinckley pretty much ran things then as well. In addition we had the very short 7 month presidency of the ailing Howard Hunter where Mr. Hinckley also was in charge. He has been in harness and in charge for a very long time. He is a truly inspirational man and I have a lot of respect and admiration for him. Under president Monson I expect the Church will become much more conservative, unmoving and autocratic.
A dark day in Utah today. God Bless Gordon Hinkley, a great man of the people.
Ozboy:
I knew about Kimball's incapacitation during the final years of his presidency, and of Hinckley's role then. And I knew of Hunter's health problems. I did not know Benson was similarly incapacitated for "most" of his presidency. Are you sure about that one?
From this outsider's pov, it'd be hard to conceive of the church hierarchy becoming more autocratic [i.e. top down in its organization and operation]. But, as I say, I'm an outsider and see only that portion of church administration visible to non-Mormons.
President Benson suffered from age related dementia for virtually all of his Presidency. He was a bit mobile and mentally functional in the beginning, but the symptoms overcame him pretty quickly and yes, President Hinckley effectively ran the Church as the First Councilor in the First Presidency from that time on.
This is complete baloney, Orson.
Take your neoCON bullshit somewhere else.
How so Rudi?
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