On the heels of my post earlier this week about a letter from State Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Wes Hayes, The State newspaper today published an article titled “Senators get reminder on ethical spending.” HOORAY for the Fourth Estate, right?
NO.
The article by Gina Smith is a spin piece designed to take the edge off the information I’ve posted (and will post) and revert to references to the impeachment inquiry on Governor Mark Sanford. In fact, almost as much space is given to “What they asked..” in the Sanford inquiry as that on this particular subject.
Nowhere in her article does Ms. Smith note that Senator Wes Hayes’ letter said:
Therefore, beginning with the Campaign Disclosure Report (the “Report”) due January 10, 2010, Members should cease reimbursing themselves from their campaign accounts for all lodging, meal and travel expenses that are defrayed by a subsistence or mileage allowance from the State. [emphasis added]
That’s not just a reminder, it’s a cease and desist order.
And, curiously, the letter from Hayes was not included in Ms. Smith’s article.
And how did The State come across the information about the letter?
From me.
I wanted to see if the paper was interested in something like this since it was SO enamored with the Sanford inquisition. I’m glad The Paper picked it up (sans attribution), but I am NOT pleased with the direction taken.
At 6:40 PM on Monday, November 30, I sent an email to The State as follows:
The South Carolina Senate Ethics Committee KNOWS that legislators for whom they have oversight are violating the law.
And what do they do? They tell them to stop.
A copy of the letter is available on this post.
http://garnetspy.com/2009/11/30/a-letter-most-curious/
Someone from the paper visited the blog and read the piece, along with other posts on Tuesday morning. In fact, that original post was viewed three times over a four-hour-plus period.
But even worse, why didn’t Ms. Smith question Senator Hayes about the passage above or even quote it in her piece?
Why did she allow Hayes to get away with saying
It’s basically just a reminder. I don’t know of any instances where that’s going on in the Senate.
This isn’t journalism, it protectionism. It’s The State running point for politicians.
You read the State paper? My bird won’t even shit on it!!!!
If I were anyone I would not give a dime to the SCGOP until they clean up their act big time, Katon is crying is our guess…
Haven’t given to SCGOP in years. Lost faith in their ability to represent the citizens. Republican or Democrat, they’re the same cat. They don’t change their spots for party. We don’t need a third party. We need to delete these two and start over with truly representative government that is SMALL government. Oh, and send the ethics violators to Siberia.
gop=liars,cheats and criminals
ALL POLITICIANS = Liars, CHeats, and Criminals
The best we can hope for is to force the reduction of the size of all state and the federal government so as to preserve the greatest amount of individual liberty. This will make these yahoos and their shenanigans irrelevant. They are not divine rulers or anointed great ones in charge. They are civil servants (the key word is SERVANTS). They have too much power and they are abusing it. Return to true individual liberty and sovereignty and they will no longer have enough power to be able to abuse it.
Give me liberty or give me death!