Oh, so Easley MEANT to give Durham a second-rate DA
Gov. Easley seems to be having a hard time explaining why he appointed Mike Nifong as district attorney in Durham.
The N&O provides a transcript of his remarks in a PBS interview with Charlie Rose Wednesday. The key excerpt:
"He was appointed acting DA by me. The district attorney, a very good district attorney, I appointed judge, and I wanted someone who wasn't going to run, that was a long-term prosecutor, just to hold the office together until somebody was elected. And our staff interviewed him. He said he wasn't going to run, and we didn't think he would. And then he got out and started running.
"There's a totally different standard you set for somebody who is going to be the elected district attorney and get into politics, and then there's somebody who you want just to run the office. Because when you get out there and start making political comments, it requires a whole lot of different talent, a whole lot of different skills that obviously he didn't have. And he would not have been appointed had we known he was going to run."
That, in a word, is nonsense.
District attorney is a political job. It requires political skills. Why would Easley purposely appoint someone he knew lacked the requisite talent for the job? Why not just appoint whomever he thought had the whole package?
Easley also appointed Guilford County's DA, Doug Henderson. Did he apply the same standard to that appointment? Was Henderson not supposed to run for the job? (He did, last year, and won.)
Sorry. The governor's explanation doesn't wash. The people he appoints to judicial system offices, judges and DA's, almost always run for a full term. It's practically required that they do, otherwise it's pretty much a wasted appointment. After all, the governor is expected to appoint someone of his own party. If that person doesn't run, it creates a wider opening for a candidate of the other party to win election.
Funny how Easley never said anything early last year when Nifong "got out and started running." It seems it was only after it was obvious to everyone how badly Nifong screwed up the Duke lacrosse case that Easley started saying, "Well, he wasn't supposed to run."
I don't believe there was any such arrangement.
And I certainly hope that Easley doesn't mean to make second-rate appointments, even if some turn out that way.
Comments (4)
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I don't believe there was any such arrangement.*Doug
Right Doug! But you were too nice on Easley. The Gov is lying though his Nifong front teeth and should have his Bar lawyer licence rejected for fibbing like Nifong. Wait a minute! The Bar would never do that! They only jump on a sure deal or thing when your friends leave you defensless and twisting in the wind.
If he is fibbing about Nifong, you better believe he is fibbing about his political connections with former Speaker Black and their little deals to get the lottary going. Knowing slick Easley, he will blame it on his staff now!
Posted on March 2, 2007 9:07 PM
Doug, seriously, why does any convenient untruth Easley tells surprise you? You KNOW that lying is no big deal in North Carolina.
Ethics is for ordinary suckers like me . . . who foolishly labored under the false impression that statutes and codes actually meant something.
It's just another day in Raleigh.
Posted on March 2, 2007 11:20 PM
It surprises me when it would be easier to tell the truth.
Easley's biggest failing, in my view, is lack of moral leadership. His greatest "accomplishment" has been introduction of a state gambling monopoly. He simply ignored the scandals of Jim Black and friends, some of which were associated with creating the lottery. And he would not speak out about Nifong at a time when it could have mattered.
Posted on March 3, 2007 7:11 AM
It is easier to tell the truth because the truth is easier to remember (as Fec pointed out on his blog a few posts ago). Nothing demonstrates that more than my own situation (which the N&R has chosen to blow off).
But telling the truth has gotten me no where, and the liars are the ones who've been rewarded.
So, while it may be easier to tell the truth, those of us who've done it in service to the state have paid a horrible price . . . and we are still looking for that moral leadership that (as you say) is so lacking in North Carolina.
The Governor knows about my situation. He's let me swing.
It's really a topic I hope to explore in more detail on my own blog (after I educate Ed Cone on military medicine), but Nifong's lame excuses remind me vividly of all the "I do not recall" responses in my own case. My memory was very good when I was asked a question. But everyone else appeared to have had a stroke.
"I do not recall" is usually (not always, but usually) the mark of a liar.
Posted on March 3, 2007 9:31 AM