https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10209488279946054
COMMENTARY
Voters Hold the Power to Reform Government
When our Facebook network started our movement to promote greater accountability, transparency, and ethics in government, we had four core principles guiding us. First, we could not be bought off. Second, we could not be tempted with pleasures of the flesh. Third, we always say exactly what is on our minds. Fourth, we respect honest differences of opinion on matters of public policy.
We started our reform government movement with the ouster of Judge Mark E. Fuller after he was arrested in August 2014 for beating his wife in an Atlanta hotel room. To the shock of many, we learned from the infamous Ray Rice case that the National Football League had higher standards of conduct for football players than the federal judiciary had for sitting judges. Our relentless Facebook investigative reports forced Fuller to resign in August 2015 from his lifetime appointment on the federal bench in Montgomery, Alabama.
Commencing in September 2015, we took the lead in exposing Governor Robert Bentley's "sex for power" and public corruption scandal with paramour/lover Rebekah Mason. Today, Bentley and Mason are awaiting their indictment on federal racketeering and public corruption charges.
In April, our exposé on State Rep. Alvin Holmes broke the backs of Holmes' gang of "human shield" legislators who were protecting Bentley from impeachment. Thanks to a surge in activism by our Facebook network, pro-impeachment legislators were able to garner enough legislative signatures to file the impeachment resolution and establish a House impeachment committee.
Earlier this month, we helped Rep. John F. Knight and his bipartisan legislative coalition kill a massive $800 million "Trojan horse" fraud scheme pushed in the legislature by Governor Bentley and his lover in the form of a prison construction plan. The plan was rife with undisclosed "insider" transactions that would have economically benefitted certain sponsoring legislators, as well as their clandestine business associates, friends, and mistresses.
We are drafting the first-ever voter-led ethics legislation, which will be completed by Memorial Day. Lobbyists laughed at us when we started this exercise and vowed that nobody would sponsor our legislation. They privately bragged that they "own" House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who is on trial for 23 counts of ethics and public corruption charges, and Senate President Del Marsh. These legislative bosses get their marching orders each year directly from the Business Council of Alabama and major corporations in Alabama. These entities hire an army of lobbyists between them. They also fund the legislative races through of multitude of political action committees ("PAC") and various PAC-to-PAC transfers. Whether the legislators are Republicans or Democrats, black or white, or male or female, the lobbyists are able to "buy" their votes with generous campaign contributions at election time and "scholarships" to luxury resorts in between election cycles.
Turning Point
Something happened last week to turn the old political paradigm in our favor. Lobbyists are hired by corporations to turn public officials into "political whores" (their term, not mine). They are very good at their craft. Many legislators are nothing but "street walkers" looking for anything they can get for free in exchange for their votes.
When CEOs started calling me directly, I knew that we had their attention on our ethics reform legislation. They tell the lobbyists what to do. The lobbyists, in turn, tell the legislators what to do. We have finally come full circle. The big bosses are direct in their expressions and they wanted to know what we want in government.
The business community fears that certain corporate names might be linked to Robert Bentley's "sex for power" scandal, or to Mike Hubbard's criminal case, or to the massive "Trojan horse" fraud scheme embedded in Bentley's prison plan, or to Roy Moore's foolish "I am above the law" antics. After all, the business community created each one of these political "Frankensteins".
The business community knows that we are out front in our investigation of and reporting on public corruption stories. What is more, the business community has come to realize that we know where the Achilles' heel is located for each major private, public, or regulated corporation that supports Bentley and his merry band of crooked or compromised legislators.
We have also shown the business community that our Facebook network has the strength and reach to effectuate positive change in government. Just ask Mark Fuller.
Our Message Is Simple, Clear and Non-partisan
My answers to the inquiries I received last week from lobbyists and the business community were simple, clear and non-partisan.
First, we want our public officials to respect Alabama voters after they are elected. They need to be reminded by the business community that they work for all Alabamians, not just the "one-percenters".
Second, we want Robert Bentley and Rebekah Mason out of our lives, now. They are rotten to the core. We cannot begin to calculate the PR damage these two lovers have caused to the state's image around the world. The business community has the power to force Bentley's resignation. They must use it.
Third, we want enhanced accountability, transparency, and ethics in local, county, and state governments. Local officeholders tend to mimic the bad behavior they see in state government. As such, we want our ethics reformed legislation passed on an overwhelming bipartisan vote in the anticipated special session of the legislature, or in the 2017 regular session, whichever occurs first.
Fourth, we want a purge of the ethically challenged legislators at the end of the current four-year term in office, together with a careful ethics screening of all candidates for state offices in 2018 who are supported by the business community. We firmly believe that legislative candidates, whether Republicans, Democrats, or Independents, should be more than pack mules for special corporate interests. They should bring considerable problem solving skills to the table. Alabama is drowning in a sea of self-inflicted problems that receive only Band-Aid measures as solutions.
Fourth, we want Chief Judge Roy Moore gone for good. He is an embarrassment to the entire state. His brand of theocratic government is best suited for places like Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the Vatican, and Yemen.
The political party affiliation or ethnicity of public officials in Alabama means nothing if we continue to elect individuals who are self-centered religious Ayatollahs like Roy Moore, or thugs like Robert Bentley and Mike Hubbard, or "political whores" like Alvin Holmes and his pro-Bentley gang of "human shield" legislators. We deserve much better than this.
Alabama voters hold diverse views on a multitude of public policy issues, but we are strongly united on three basic principles: (1) we DO NOT want crooks in public office; (2) we DO NOT want "political whores" as public officials, no matter who is pimping them; and (3) we DO NOT want public officials who think they are above the law.
Finally, I made it clear to my friends who are lobbyists and CEOs that we DO NOT want anything for ourselves. No consulting fees; no jobs; no vendor contracts; no participation in planned business deals; no all-expense paid airplane or helicopter flights to exotic ports of call; no concert tickets in Las Vegas or theater tickets in New York City; no prized football tickets; no skybox passes to entertainment events; no stock tips; no "insider" deals; no VIP passes to political party conventions; and no event tickets to the Masters or the Regions golf tournaments.
We only want clean, transparent and ethical government, and it should be free.
Donald V. Watkins
No comments:
Post a Comment