In what may be the most flagrant example of political hypocrisy to appear in the current governor’s race between two failed candidates, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is calling on ethics-challenged Gov. Bob McDonnell to call a special session of the Virginia General Assembly to focus on ethics.
What makes this even more incredible is that the call is coming from Cuccinelli, an Attorney General who believes the law applies to everyone except him. Yes, he’s the same Cuccinelli who accepted unethical gifts from Jonnie Williams, the corrupt Star Scientific honcho who showed both McDonnell and the Attorney General alike with cash, trips, gifts and stays at his Smith Mountain Lake retreat.
This is also the same Ken Cuccinelli who claims the open records laws of Virginia don’t apply to his office and has refused to turn over information requested in freedom of information requests.
And he’s the same unethical Ken Cuccinelli who claims he can’t return those gifts from Williams — as McDonnell has done — because he spent, ate or drank most of them.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is a pitibul excuse as either a candidate or governor but Ken Cuccinelli raises serious ethical questions over his actions in office. For him to call for a session on ethics is political hypocrisy at the highest levels.
3 thoughts on “Virginia is for crooks? Good question”
I worked for Attorney General Jerry Baliles in the early ’80s. He thought it was important to practice “preventive legal medicine” and provided training and briefings to thousands of state and local officials on a number of topics including conflict of interests and freedom of information. The idea was to make sure they knew the law and could keep themselves out of trouble. One of the senior assistants offered a sensible rule of thumb – “Don’t accept gifts, but if you do – make sure you can eat or drink it at one sitting.” A legislative joint subcommittee said in a 2006 report studying conflict of interests – “…the public servant holds a position of trust and confidence and is obligated to act solely in the interest of the beneficiary of that trust – the public…include(s) not only situations where the officer actually breached his fiduciary obligation, but also where the officer put himself in a position that allowed public doubts as to his undivided loyalty and integrity…”
And that’s where we are. There are well founded public doubts and all the disclosure in the world may not alleviate them. If you want to represent the public and “serve” the public – fine. If you’re ethically challenged – find another line of work.
Virginia State Code (Article 6, Chapter 43) mandates semi-annual Ethics training for certain state officials, including both Cuccinelli and McDonnell. Cooch won’t won’t respond to a FOIA, but McDonnell did, and guess what…Cooch’s staff provided “ethics” training to McDonnell’s and his staff.
http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2013/05/mcdonnell-ethics-training/
Why won’t the Virginia AG respond to a legal FOIA?
Is there any third party or independent running for governor?
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