I’m More Worried About A Guy Who Accepts Bribes
Okay, okay, everybody is all “Damn Those Republicans!” this morning when it became apparent that the GOP had bribed Virginia Democratic State Senator Phillip Pucket to resign and thereby give them the power to reject Obamacare in Virginia.
Hell, I am far madder at the damn Democrat for taking the bribe. We are supposed to be better than that.
Puckett
The bribe is that his daughter gets a judgeship and Puckett gets the job of deputy director of the state tobacco commission. So now you have a guy sitting on the state tobacco commission, a job which involves awarding economic development grants funded by the national tobacco litigation settlement. So you’re going to trust a guy who is bribable to sit on a commission in charge of millions of dollars?
And you want a judge who didn’t get there on her own but through her father’s under the table dealings? You really want a George W Bush sitting on a court?
Terry Kilgore, a Republican who confirmed the deal, said, “I would say that he wanted to make sure his daughter kept her judgeship. A father’s going do that.”
What father is going to do that? Certainly not mine. My Daddy would have said, “Baby Girl, I believe in you. I think you can be anything you want to be. I want you to get it on your own so that you will always know that you did it yourself.” Additionally, my Daddy would have never taken a bribe, especially one where people may die.
Look, I expect Republicans to be crooks. I live in Tom DeLay’s old district, for pete’s sake. I walk around at night with a lantern looking for an honest Republican and so far I’ve come up with diddle squat.
From this day forward when I accidentally hit my thumb with a hammer, I am going holler, “Puckett!”
And that’s what Virginia Democrats who let him get away with this can do. They can Puckett.
Thanks to everybody for the heads up.
In Illinois, the impeached former governor, Rod Blagojevich, got 14 years in the federal pen for similar shenanigans. Let’s hope the U.S. Attorney in Virginia jumps on this with both boots.
1A little background on Puckett’s daughter and how his resigning plays into her keeping her judgeship!
Judicial appointments at the level of district judge are strictly a legislative prerogative in Virginia.
Puckett’s daughter, Martha Puckett Ketron, is already on the bench in Southwest Virginia, serving as a Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court judge. Circuit Court judges in that region gave her a temporary appointment last year while the General Assembly was not in session. The House approved her appointment to a six-year term when it reconvened early this year, but the Senate declined to confirm her. The Senate has a policy against appointing the relatives of active legislators to the bench.
“After the legislature concluded its regular session in February, the judges reappointed Ketron to serve until the legislature reconvenes. If Puckett resigns, the legislature plans to appoint her to a full six-year term. “It should pave the way for his daughter,” Kilgore said of Puckett’s resignation. “She’s a good judge. . . . I would say that he wanted to make sure his daughter kept her judgeship. A father’s going do that.”
As found at:
2http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/2014/06/08/901edf8e-ef54-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html
Oh, holy cow.
3Amen and puckett, indeed!! For him to be so swayed only proves he was a lousy democrat and not worthy of a capital “D” on that democrat!!
4Not only is this trick unethical, it is highly illegal. Quid pro quo, as the Supremes narrowly defined it. Only hope the VA State’s
5Attorney isn’t a Republican’t.
Nice home you got there Juanita DioJeanes, who does your decorating, Crate and BARREL?
It is S.O.P.amongst the G.O.P. where I learned my retail politics to entice an opponent out of a race to clear the way for the preferred candidate. Usually this takes the form of mysteriously precise donations that wipe out the campaign’s debts, plus an extra not-exactly $10k for the next election that THEY will select for you.
Kind of “pay to NOT play.”
I can the good news is, I never took a bribe. The bad news is, I was never offered one!
6With Democrats like Mr. Puckett, who needs Republicans?
7How can Puckett (which shall become my throw away word for all things nasty and weak) look at himself in the mirror?
8Every time an uninsured person gets ill they need to send his heinous carcass the bill.
Just one more reason for term limits.
9How can you tell a politician is crooked?
10There are politicians that aren’t? Who knew?
PUCKETT PUCKETT PUCKETT!!!!!
11We do things on a much larger scale in BC!
Last general election, the incumbent Liberal Party leader (and therefore Premier) Christy Clark lost her seat in her own riding. No problem, the fellow who won in Westside-Kelowna resigned so Ms. Clark could run in a byelection. She immediately started musing about a second bridge across Lake Okanagan, the voters responded appropriately, and presto! $2 million earmarked over three years for planning purposes for another bridge. It’s only been six years since the replacement (a 3475ft pontoon bridge) opened!
Wonder how much it will cost by the time they add actual construction?
But hey, at least they didn’t sell their votes cheaply.
12Oh, and the reward for the fellow who resigned his seat? In October 2013, Premier Clark appointed him as Investment and Trade Commissioner for Asia, a position based in Beijing.
13Virginia’s poor just got well and truly pucketted.
14I just don’t understand why he would settle for a deputy commissioner position. As much as those locos hate Obamacare, they would have appointed him Governor.
15Way too many D…. Democrats….. I… in …… N….name….. O…… Only……
16Unfortunately…. not just in Virginia.
This has left me near speechless. You have articulated my viewpoint exactly. Thank you.
17So as of early this afternoon, the chairman of the state’s tobacco commission has canceled the meeting that had been hastily arranged for the sole purpose of voting on a cushy job for ex-Senator Puckett. There’s a lot of sound and fury in Richmond today over the whole stinking deal. With any luck, Puckett will turn up a three-time loser out of this. He gave up his $18,000 a year Senate seat. He doesn’t get the cushy job on the tobacco commission. Finally, maybe the Senate will chicken out on appointing Puckett’s daughter to another cushy job, a judgeship.
18In the wake of a “firestorm of criticism regarding his resignation from the Virginia Senate,” Puckett withdrew his name from consideration for the tobacco commission job. The fact that Puckett will not take this job, however, will not necessarily save him from prosecution if he did, in fact, agree to trade his seat in the state senate for a new role with the tobacco commission before this firestorm arose. Virginia’s bribery law provides that anyone who “accepts or agrees to accept” a bribe in return for an “exercise of discretion as a public servant” is guilty of a felony, so Puckett could have committed the crime of bribery if and when he agreed to deal away his senate seat — regardless of whether he later decided not to take the prize that he was offered.
19@Larry – Intent was enough to nail Blagojevich, too. And there are plenty of questions to ask his daughter, about whether she was in on the conspiracy.
20OK, does this mean that the RWNJ’s who offered the bribe will be investigated and judged as well?
21I read this with my mouth open, but we spend a lot of time with mouths open around here…central PA. Corbett had a big ole column in the paper saying we MUST support the VA veterans. But PA did not expand Medicaid. Nopers, it did NOT–but Corbett wants the veterans cared-for. Another mouth-open moment: a school principal lifted his commencement speech from David Foster Wallace, who is deceased. And gave no credit to Wallace. Oops. The comments online are mostly “who cares” which leads me to believe there has been a general shift in moral/ethical ideas that I may have missed. So, for a supposed Democrat, with all the importance of who controls legislatures in states, to impale himself on the cross of “family issues,” well, it defies belief. But doesn’t everything??
22re: the VA. As John Young said, it’s not the paper pushers. It’s WAR. THAT’s what’s wrong with the VA. We need to quit running around and starting wars, I don’t care whose district the munitions are made in. Let them build wind turbines. Wind turbines use the same technology as bombers. Probably cars do too, and trains and buses. None of those require wars to thrive.
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