{"id":4643,"date":"2005-07-08T10:23:49","date_gmt":"2005-07-08T14:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4643.html"},"modified":"2005-07-08T10:23:49","modified_gmt":"2005-07-08T14:23:49","slug":"republican-governors-are-in-trouble-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/republican-governors-are-in-trouble-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican governors are in trouble, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks I’ve noted that a Republican president<\/a> and Republican Congress<\/a> are burdened by multiple political scandals, but let’s not leave Republican governors out of the fun.<\/p>\n

In Ohio, Gov. Bob Taft (R) is overwhelmed<\/a> by charges of corruption; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) seems to have become a magnet for controversy, and former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland (R) is currently behind bars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then there’s Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), who is up to his ears in a major scandal involving his administration’s hiring practices. In fact, earlier this year, documents, including notes and emails, came to light that showed Fletcher’s hiring decisions were based almost exclusively on partisanship<\/a> and not individual qualifications — you got a job in state government if you’re a Republican, whether you deserved it or not. <\/p>\n

Attorney General Greg Stumbo investigated, believing that the practices violate state employment laws. This week, a grand jury came to the same conclusion and started issuing indictments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s deputy chief of staff and two other administration officials were indicted yesterday on charges alleging they illegally filled rank-and-file state jobs based on politics, not qualifications.<\/p>\n

The cases marked the second time the Franklin County special grand jury has returned indictments since it was impaneled June 6 to investigate allegations of illegal hiring in the Transportation Cabinet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Among those indicted this week were Fletcher’s deputy chief of staff, an executive director in Fletcher’s Transportation Cabinet, and Fletcher’s transportation administrative services commissioner. The charges range from violating applicants’ civil rights, to political discrimination, to multiple counts of criminal conspiracy.<\/p>\n

In DC, Dems believe criticizing Republican ethics<\/a> (ala Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, all of Jack Abramoff’s buddies, etc.) highlights how far the GOP has fallen. The truth is, it’s not just in Washington; Republicans’ ethics problems are systemic and nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks I’ve noted that a Republican president and Republican Congress are burdened by multiple political scandals, but let’s not leave Republican governors out of the fun. In Ohio, Gov. Bob Taft (R) is overwhelmed by charges of corruption; California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) seems to have become a magnet for controversy, and former […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}