Saturday, June 26, 2010

¡Somos el número ocho! Vayan, Nuevo Mexico!!!

But only because it's in alphabetical order and "R" comes later.

Here's the CREW list of the nation's worst governors--where "worst" means the ones at the center of the most corruption charges:
Below, you will find a short summary of each Worst Governor's outrageous actions with links to each governor's full report. Note: The list of governors is unranked, and appears in alphabetical order below. Press coverage of CREW's report can be found here.

America's Worst Governors

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)
Gov. Donald Carcieri (R-RI)
Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV)
Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA)
Gov. David Paterson (D-NY)
Gov. Sonny Perdue (R-GA)
Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)
Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM)
Gov. Mike Rounds (R-SD)
Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)
That's quite a list, and a really stellar pantheon of pimps, punks, and procurers. Big Bill should be proud to be in such fast company. Here's the brief list of particulars concerning the venality and corruption of our own carpet-bagger latifundista:
Bill Richardson (D-NM) was elected governor of New Mexico in 2002 and reelected in 2006. Under the state’s term limits law, he cannot run for reelection in 2010.

Charges:
Used state investments to benefit political allies
Allowed pay-to-play scandals to plague his administration
Rewarded close associates with state positions or benefits, including providing a longtime friend and political supporter with a costly state contract
Failed to make state government more transparent
Seems pretty petty and trifling next to Sanford, Paterson and/or Gibbons...Crew explains:

CREW reviewed the job performance of all 50 of our nation’s governors to determine which are the worst. We considered whether governors had violated ethics, campaign finance and personal financial disclosure rules as well as whether they had complied with state transparency laws. It is nearly impossible to compare governors’ adherence to the laws because state rules and laws vary so widely. Each state has its own ethical rules and standards. Requirements regarding disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures and personal finances differ significantly as do state open records laws. Some states make much more information publicly available than others.

Despite these difficulties, CREW was been able to reach some general conclusions about which governors violated agreed upon notions of competence, transparency and integrity.
So Bill's just 'another dirty pol.'

2 comments:

P M Prescott said...

They didn't mention all the money spent buying a jet.
Are you coming to the Isotopes game tomorrow?

Unknown said...

'twas bill's involvement as sec energy in wen ho lee fiasco that alienated me forever.