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Stench from the Republican Party
Posted
7-6-2007
The stench emanating these days from the
Republican Party smells from the White House the whole way down
to Hempfield Township. If it isn't Bush commuting the sentence
of "Scooter" Libby, it is Kim Ward's cronies on the township
Municipal Authority's Board running amok with credit cards.
The Bush commutation sends a terrible message
that the criminal justice system only applies to people not
working for the Bush Administration. First, a CIA agent is "outed"
because her husband Joseph Wilson had the audacity to say that
some of Bush's faulty evidence for invading Iraq was truly
faulty. Now under any other administration revealing the
identity of a CIA agent was a crime. Somehow, no one has been
charged with that crime, but in all the covering up "Scooter"
got convicted of perjury. Bush commuted the 30-month sentence
that had been upheld by an Appeals Court panel of three
Republican judges for being "excessive". I guess Bush thinks
juries and judges don't know how to be lenient enough on his
henchmen when they are doing his dirty work.
And that is the really smelly part of this
scenario. This commutation is not a traditional presidential
pardon that takes place at the end of a sitting president's time
in office. The offender was someone committing a crime to
protect Bush's administration. Bush himself has a vested
interest in having Scooter keep quiet.
One week we are hearing the vice-president
contradict our Constitution by saying his office is not part of
the executive branch of government. He made such an outrageous
statement because he doesn't want to have to account for secret
documents his office possessed the way everyone else in the
federal government must do. Then the next week Bush commutes the
sentence of Mr. Libby. Just how arrogant can this group of
Republicans be? Does that attitude permeate down to the local
level? If you've read about Kim Ward's appointees to the
Hempfield Township Municipal Authority it must.
Where in the world have you heard of members of
a public board or authority having credit cards and being able
to charge dinners and drinks without even having to produce
receipts? These charges went into the thousands of dollars too.
The board members identified as the culprits are
Senator Bob Regola's father and Brian Melenia, another one of
Kim Ward's converts (like the Regolas). These people are
supposed to oversee the operation of sewer service in Hempfield,
and they are traveling and entertaining (for what possible
reason are they entertaining?) And they get credit cards? Then
they are permitted to use them without producing a receipt to
verify it is a valid expense? It must mean any expense is valid
because apparently they had no policy for use of the credit
cards.
If these are the types of political allies Kim
Ward has developed in Hempfield, do we really need them
associated with county government? I have seen Supervisor Bob
Davidson calling for their resignations, yet Kim Ward is silent.
If she approves of that kind of accounting and behavior, how is
she going to oversee an organization with 2,000 employees and a
variety of boards and authorities? Or is she afraid of
antagonizing her allies in the Regola family?
The abuse of power has been a recurrent theme
with the Bush administration and its cronies in Congress (Duke
Cunningham, Bob Ney, etc.), and it seems now it even filters
down to the local level. For years the Republicans were the
opposition party, and they talked a good game. But their
behavior, whether it has been Washington, Harrisburg or
Hempfield, demonstrates a consistent lack of regard for
responsibility and trust. County government dwarfs Hempfield in
the scope of its mission and responsibilities, and we've long
ago put in safeguards for acceptable expenditures. What's taking
Kim Ward so long in Hempfield?
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