The deal on Deal #2

Here's what my favorite AJC  columnist Jay Booker says about the Deal ethics probe and the shenanigans involving the ethics commission:

In its effort to dispel allegations that it operates through secret backroom arrangements and deal-making, the five-member state ethics commission has apparently resorted to, well, secret backroom arrangements and deal-making. . . .

In an emergency meeting late last month, the commission had voted to request a special assistant attorney general to investigate charges that an ethics case had been 'fixed' on behalf of Gov. Nathan Deal, and that top commission staff people had been stripped of their jobs for refusing to go along.   Last week, the commission suddenly reversed that decision, without any public meeting, vote or discussion.

Suddenly, almost by magic, the promised investigation into what happened in the Deal case has become a mere audit of the commission's structure and employee performance.

Gov. Deal's office has issued a stringent denial that it had any communication of any sort with the commission concerning this reversal.   Booker continues:

[The commission] was never designed or intended to work.  It was intended to have the appearance of independence;  it was intended to look like a watchdog without having actual watchdog teeth. . . .  

Over the years, through Democratic and Republican control, the people who run this state have forced out top commission staff people who dared to show some backbone in enforcing the law . . . .

When the commission has issued rulings that displeased political leaders . . . it has been punished with the loss of funding, the loss of authority or both.

It is time to blow things up.  An ethics commission appointed by powerful state leaders is not designed to be independent.  Appoint them by judges instead.   A commission staff whose salaries and resources depend on the benevolence of state legislators is not designed to be independent.

This is not a new problem, and Gov. Deal is not the first to operate in this way.   But he is the current chief abuser of the loopholes and behind the scenes manipulation of the levers of government.   If we want good government, we must have strong watchdog functions that are truly independent and have the power to investigate and bring charges.

Ralph