Ethics Actions

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July 12, 2005

Ethics Actions

The Senate Ethics Committee is meeting and has handed over a report that appears to contain some pretty damning evidence against former Senator John Ford. No, we're not surprised, but some of us may still be astonished at how far some legislators are willing to go "down that road." And at how much [chutzpah or senility?] it took for Lt. Gov. Wilder to decry their arrests.

The new Ethics advisory board will meet on the 22nd of this month. This 12-person board's naming was completed yesterday by Governor Bredesen, who said,

“As Governor, I’m committed to doing everything in my power to restore Tennesseans’ trust in their state government. This panel gives us a running start in that effort.”

Am I the only one who winces a little bit after comparing the "everything in my power" phrase to some of the (albeit heavily slanted) info posted on a certain online news magazine?

UPDATES from The Tennessean, whose RSS feed I seem to have lost:

Newest member of 12-member ethics advisory board has had to clear her name of conflict of interest in the past (this doesn't sound like much of an issue to me, but I'm just listing);

"Lawmakers launched a look at ethics rules with a review today of what other states are doing.." (I sure hope they've looked at Washington State)

UPDATE II: I really am remiss in not linking to several recent and great posts by Matt White over at South End Grounds. Apropos to this post is his "roundup of ideas" -- he earlier put out the call for them, and I never got around to responding. It looks like some did, and they are good ones. I particularly agree with the idea of having a -- gasp -- elected Attorney General. But really, you should read Matt White more. He's got a couple of guests now, and I guess I'm warming to them, but look for posts by The Groundskeeper. There are several conservatives/Republicans out there that make sense, and aren't just rabidly partisan armchair quarterbacks, or creepily Taleban-ish in their fight for theocratic control over YOUR life, and someday I'll do a roundup of them.

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