Deal's deals

Campaigning for governor, Nathan Deal promised to create jobs. That's one promise he seems to be keeping.

Not that Georgia's jobless statistics have improved much. But he has "created" lots of jobs for his family and cronies. Working the system seems to be his biggest talent.

Early on came the announcement that twice-bankrupt son-in-law Clinton Wilder had accepted a high position with the Georgia Nursing Home Association, a group that lobbies heavily for nursing home owners. It's just coincidence, of course, that the governor must oversee the billions of dollars that nursing homes receive from the state each year for the indigent elderly in their care.

PS: Nothing in Wilder's work history suggests that he has any qualifications to work in such a position; but Gov. Deal assured us all (I'm so relieved) that Wilder will have nothing to do with lobbying the office of the governor. Yes, but who lobbied to get him the much-needed job, so the governor doesn't continue to have to bail him out?

But the latest is this, discussed by Charlie Harper in today's AJC: Several weeks ago, Deal claimed that the state budget was so tight that it was necessary for the Director of the State Ethics Commission to take a 30% pay cut, from $120,000 to $85,000 (that's $35,000, please note). Her alternative was to resign, which she did -- and which was obviously Deal's intent. No connection, of course, to the fact that she had prepared subpoenas to investigate ethics complaints against Gov. Nathan Deal. That was "just an unfortunate coincidence."

What makes this so bald-faced outrageous is that now, just weeks later, Deal has appointed the girl friend of his deputy chief of staff to the position of state mental health ombudsman and, in the process, increased the salary for that position by $25,000. Well, I guess he would brag about saving the state $10,000.

But why the increase? The last person who had the ombudsman job at $82,000 had a master's degree in psychology. Deputy Chief of Staff's Girl Friend has a bachelor's degree in communications from Valdosta State College and no experience in mental health. What warrants increasing the job's remuneration by $25,000? No explanation offered.

Never mind. Her new salary ($107,000) will suddenly double the $53,000 she earned as Gov. Sonny Purdue's scheduler. Deal's office defends the appointment, saying she knows how state government works. I think in the Deal lexicon that means she knows how to pull deals for Deal. But, predictably, Deal's office was "adamant" that her dating relationship had nothing whatsoever to do with her appointment to this position.

Yes, but can she type?

Trying to research this on the internet, I came upon the liberal blog PoliticsUSA, which has a pretty obvious slant; but here's what they had to say about our governor back during the campaign:

The little shifty devil running for Governor in Georgia, Nathan Deal, has one more scandal to add to his seemingly endless financial scandal rap sheet. Nathan is running as a fiscal conservative. Naturally, this means he is good at grifting money from you and me and the government and manipulating the system to take advantage of loopholes and get no bid contracts for companies in which he has a financial interest. Please, you’re supposed to focus on his churchiness, people. And how handsome of a grandpa he is. The picture of gentility!

Remember Deal was already found guilty by The Office of Congressional Ethics of violating house rules for using his office to push policy that would benefit his family’s auto salvage company and earning too much outside income. He departed Congress in an act of “early retirement” before the ruling could impact him. Now, months later, he’s running for Governor of Georgia, long out of the reach of the disciplinary jurisdiction of the ethics committee. Convenient, eh?

As I've said before about our governor, I knew his mother as the other second grade teacher across the hall from my class in Sandersville Elementary School. And I know that she would spank Nathan if she knew about all this.

And this doesn't even include the contemptible, vile anti-gay smears he used against his opponent for the Republican nomination.

Ralph