Easley on ethics
Gov. Easley signed a trio of new ethics bills into law today. The most notable puts contribution limits and disclosure requirements on legal defense funds.
My question for the governor was whether or not any of these laws would have headed off recent high profile cases, such as the one that sent former House Speaker Jim Black heading off to jail.
"There are certain things you cannot legislate, which (are) character and integrity," Easley said, adding that there were some thing that came up that the laws do now address. Black's use of an unregulated legal defense fund was one such change.
"But, I mean I want to be perfectly honest with you about the cases you refer to, the high-visibility ones this year. There's nothing we have passed in the past couple of years that would have made that activity illegal. That's been illegal since the beginning of the Republic," Easley said.
Click here to listen to more of Easley's take on this topic.
Judge Robert Farmer, who heads the state ethics commission, speaks up after Easley on that bit of audio, saying that he's happy the ethics board will be able to open up its meetings. And, he adds, the commission will be holding is first (nearly) fully open meeting Friday and will be considering sanctions against those who have not filed their ethics disclosure forms.
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"But, I mean I want to be perfectly honest with you about the cases you refer to, the high-visibility ones this year. There's nothing we have passed in the past couple of years that would have made that activity illegal. That's been illegal since the beginning of the Republic," Easley said.* Mark
I wonder if the Gov was talking about pre- ancient Roman Nifong Republic or his outstanding present Good ole Boy Republic appointment of Senator Nifong.
Posted on August 9, 2007 5:45 PM
My question for the governor was whether or not any of these laws would have headed off recent high profile cases, such as the one that sent former House Speaker Jim Black heading off to jail.* Mark
None of these laws would have occured had not the Black scandels clear the Governor of his lousy handling of the lottary. The Governor is trying to do a " Don Beason" ....Or a "Frank James"
In short, it's like Beason resigning from that professional lobby group at the Capital yesterday. That is like Frank James resigning from his Brother's Jessie James gang and claiming he thought that Jessie was robbing Railroads instead of banks.
Posted on August 9, 2007 5:55 PM