Deal doubles down . . . but doesn't help his case

Gov. Nathan Deal is apparently worried about the effect of the bombshell memo that was released two days ago.   He chose a friendly newsman -- the ultra-right-wing Erick Erickson -- and gave a one hour radio interview, defending the appropriateness of his staff aides' contacts with Holly LaBerge about his ethics case.

Now remember that Holly LaBerge is the Deal administration's chosen replacement for Stacey Kalberman, who they got rid of because she was pursuing his ethics investigation too rigorously.   One can argue that all the evidence points to LaBerge being their hand-picked person to go in and "take care of" the ethics violation case for Deal.

Apparently she wasn't completely on board.   Her memo, which has languished in the Attorney General's office for two years, unshared with the attorneys in Kalberman's lawsuit, implicates Deal's aides in pressuring her and threatening her.   It's possible of course that she was lying back then in writing this memo, but everything we know about the case points to the truth of her note.    Including Deal's need to spend an hour with a friendly radio host spinning the story one day after the news came out.

What Deal told Erickson was that the contact by his aides was completely appropriate -- just like any defendent might want to contact the prosecutor to inquire about the scheduling of his case and how the prosecutor was going to present the case.    Deal pointed out that, in fact, it was the five Commission members themselves that were the "jury" in the case.  And his aides did not contact them.

What this whitewash fails to take account of is this:   Deal is not just any defendent.  He is the most powerful politician in the state with the most control over the government itself.   His people after all got rid of LaBerge's predecessor, and they could do the same to her.

The prosecutor analogy doesn't help.   If you have a powerful governor, who could get the prosecutor fired, who intimidates and pressures the prosecutor about watering down a case against him -- it's quite possible for that prosecutor to present the case in such as way as to fool a jury into thinking it was no big deal.

So for Deal's people -- his tax-payer paid top aides -- to call her and say the it would not be "in the best interests" of the committee, it's a pretty clear threat about her own job security.  So, let's have an independent prosecutor examine what she presented to the commission that led them to a wrist-slap verdict and a whitewash.    LaBerge may have "fixed" the case for Gov. Deal, but she planted her own revenge. . . . That memo . . .

In fact, you could say that this is the perfect time for that memo to surface -- just as Deal's reelection campaign shifts into high gear.    It could bring him down.

Nice try, governor.   But, as Groucho would say, "Close, but no cigar."    Actually, I don't believe he even came close.

Ralph