Bubba Munster, a frequent commenter on this blog and a great blog author himself made a comment on my rant on Susana Martinez using taxpayer money to attend the Republican Governor's Conference and Legislators sabotaging their own legislation. It is so good I wanted to make sure everyone sees it. Here it is.
"We should be alarmed by things like this, I think, and jump on them as soon as they raise their ugly heads.
These are corrupt practices. The interesting thing about corruption is that it's corrosive. Note how the lawmakers interviewed see nothing wrong with what they've done.
According to the Journal article, the practice of New Mexico lawmakers inserting the word "notwithstanding" into budget items to subvert existing law has been increasing in the last few years, almost exponentially. The Republican Governor's Association has no civic function. According to its own web site it exists "primarily" to "help elect Republicans to governorships throughout the nation". For the governor to attend their conferences and charge it to the people of New Mexico is clearly illegal, but that's not an impediment to the governor and the people around her. Why?
Well, we have a mayor who doesn't go after corruption ("I don't play the blame game") and a president and attorney general who haven't prosecuted one Wall Street banker or CEO. We have our own lawmakers keeping watch here.
There's always some corruption. We cut corners. We act in self interest. We're imperfect. But in the US we have the "rule of law," a standard outside ourselves, that we've all agreed on, and against which we can measure ourselves. When government begins to ignore that standard, not just secretly but blatantly, you're headed for trouble.
Just look at countries where corruption is rampant. It's a long, long way back from that. It literally requires generations."
"We should be alarmed by things like this, I think, and jump on them as soon as they raise their ugly heads.
These are corrupt practices. The interesting thing about corruption is that it's corrosive. Note how the lawmakers interviewed see nothing wrong with what they've done.
According to the Journal article, the practice of New Mexico lawmakers inserting the word "notwithstanding" into budget items to subvert existing law has been increasing in the last few years, almost exponentially. The Republican Governor's Association has no civic function. According to its own web site it exists "primarily" to "help elect Republicans to governorships throughout the nation". For the governor to attend their conferences and charge it to the people of New Mexico is clearly illegal, but that's not an impediment to the governor and the people around her. Why?
Well, we have a mayor who doesn't go after corruption ("I don't play the blame game") and a president and attorney general who haven't prosecuted one Wall Street banker or CEO. We have our own lawmakers keeping watch here.
There's always some corruption. We cut corners. We act in self interest. We're imperfect. But in the US we have the "rule of law," a standard outside ourselves, that we've all agreed on, and against which we can measure ourselves. When government begins to ignore that standard, not just secretly but blatantly, you're headed for trouble.
Just look at countries where corruption is rampant. It's a long, long way back from that. It literally requires generations."
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