The Democrats and Corruption

Sometimes you have to wonder if the Democrats in the State Legislature are really serious at all about cleaning up corruption.


Attorney General Roy Cooper asked the Democratic leaders in the legislature to give him two weapons to fight corruption. He asked them to make “it a crime to lie to SBI agents, and to allow state and local prosecutors to hold grand jury investigations into public corruption.” (News and Observer, 8/30/06).


Neither law passed.


The Democrat leaders in the House killed the provision to make it a crime to lie to SBI agents by saying it was not germane to the bill it was part of. The definition of what is germane in the House is simple: it’s whatever leaders say it is. If they like a law, it’s germane. If they don’t, it’s not. What really happened is House leaders didn’t want to pass the law but they didn’t want to take the heat for voting against it either. So they killed it without a vote by saying it wasn’t germane.


What Republicans should be asking their Democrat opponents in the elections this fall is: Why on earth did you want to make it legal to lie to an SBI agent? It sort of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?


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Carter Wrenn

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The Democrats and Corruption

Sometimes you have to wonder if the Democrats in the State Legislature are really serious at all about cleaning up corruption.


Attorney General Roy Cooper asked the Democratic leaders in the legislature to give him two weapons to fight corruption. He asked them to make “it a crime to lie to SBI agents, and to allow state and local prosecutors to hold grand jury investigations into public corruption.” (News and Observer, 8/30/06).


Neither law passed.


The Democrat leaders in the House killed the provision to make it a crime to lie to SBI agents by saying it was not germane to the bill it was part of. The definition of what is germane in the House is simple: it’s whatever leaders say it is. If they like a law, it’s germane. If they don’t, it’s not. What really happened is House leaders didn’t want to pass the law but they didn’t want to take the heat for voting against it either. So they killed it without a vote by saying it wasn’t germane.


What Republicans should be asking their Democrat opponents in the elections this fall is: Why on earth did you want to make it legal to lie to an SBI agent? It sort of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?


Click to Read & Post Comments

Avatar photo

Carter Wrenn

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Archives