Turning Up the Heat
He flattened the Governor to get a $3 million state contract then like a one-man wrecking ball crashed into Senator Phil Berger to keep his contract and after the press chewed on the Governor the reporters made a beeline straight for Berger – who didn’t mince words.
Yes, he said, Graeme Keith called him about that contract.
Yes, he said, Keith wanted him to change a bill.
Yes, he talked to the Governor’s office about the bill.
Yes, the Governor’s office told him to change it.
No, no one in the Governor’s Office ever told him the FBI was investigating how Keith got that contract and, Yes, if they had he (Berger) wouldn’t have changed one word in that bill.
Then Berger dropped a bombshell.
The Government Operations Committee, he said, was going to hold its own investigation and Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry, Prisons Commissioner David Guice and Budget Director Lee Roberts were going to appear at the hearing and that’s where Berger stopped – because he’d made his point and didn’t need to go one step further.
But that’s not the whole story by a long-shot because there’re going to be Democratic legislators on that committee and they’re going to be asking questions the Governor won’t want to hear such as:
- The Budget Director gave the order to give Graeme Keith the contract. But who made the decision? Was it the Director? Or the Governor?
- Nine people were sitting in the room when Graeme Keith said the time had come to see what he was going to get in return for his contributions – which the Governor says he didn’t hear because he was in a ‘side conversation.’ So when the Governor left that meeting he didn’t know he’d just had a close-up head-on brush with play to pay politics – but he did know later. And the question the Democrats are going to ask is ‘When?’ and the next question they’re going to ask is was it before the state gave Graeme Keith that contract?
The Governor’s folks have landed in hot water and, at that hearing, they’re going to be staring across the table at Democrats dead-set on turning up the heat.
Turning Up the Heat
He flattened the Governor to get a $3 million state contract then like a one-man wrecking ball crashed into Senator Phil Berger to keep his contract and after the press chewed on the Governor the reporters made a beeline straight for Berger – who didn’t mince words.
Yes, he said, Graeme Keith called him about that contract.
Yes, he said, Keith wanted him to change a bill.
Yes, he talked to the Governor’s office about the bill.
Yes, the Governor’s office told him to change it.
No, no one in the Governor’s Office ever told him the FBI was investigating how Keith got that contract and, Yes, if they had he (Berger) wouldn’t have changed one word in that bill.
Then Berger dropped a bombshell.
The Government Operations Committee, he said, was going to hold its own investigation and Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry, Prisons Commissioner David Guice and Budget Director Lee Roberts were going to appear at the hearing and that’s where Berger stopped – because he’d made his point and didn’t need to go one step further.
But that’s not the whole story by a long-shot because there’re going to be Democratic legislators on that committee and they’re going to be asking questions the Governor won’t want to hear such as:
- The Budget Director gave the order to give Graeme Keith the contract. But who made the decision? Was it the Director? Or the Governor?
- Nine people were sitting in the room when Graeme Keith said the time had come to see what he was going to get in return for his contributions – which the Governor says he didn’t hear because he was in a ‘side conversation.’ So when the Governor left that meeting he didn’t know he’d just had a close-up head-on brush with play to pay politics – but he did know later. And the question the Democrats are going to ask is ‘When?’ and the next question they’re going to ask is was it before the state gave Graeme Keith that contract?
The Governor’s folks have landed in hot water and, at that hearing, they’re going to be staring across the table at Democrats dead-set on turning up the heat.