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Who Will Emerge From the Shambles of Four Scandals to Lead Alabama?
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on June 12, 2016
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on June 12, 2016
In the aftermath of Mike Hubbard's conviction Friday on 12 felony counts of ethics charges, I received scores of phone calls, text messages, emails, and private Facebook messages Friday night and Saturday from Alabamians wanting to know who will emerge from the shambles of scandals created by the Mike Hubbard, Robert Bentley, Roy Moore, and Del Marsh to lead Alabama into the future.
Alabama voters learned several important lessons from Hubbard's criminal trial. First, we must immediately close or severely limit the exception in the current ethics law that permits public officials to accept things of value from "friends". We watched $1.5 million dollars flow to Mike Hubbard through this "friendship" loophole alone. A group of powerful interest "friends" bought Hubbard and owned his clout as House Speaker from that day forward.
Second, many legislators who we thought were good and decent people witnessed Hubbard's public corruption in the Statehouse as it was occurring. Yet, they said and did nothing to stop it. What is worse, these legislators gleefully re-elected Hubbard as Speaker of the House even after they saw the breath and depth of the public corruption outlined in Hubbard's criminal indictment. None of these legislators deserves re-election.
Third, many legislators supported the criminal acts outlined in Hubbard's indictment by carrying his poisoned political water in the House of Representatives. By enacting Hubbard's "bought and paid for" legislative agenda into new laws, these legislators gave voters this poisoned water to drink and we drank it. This is why Alabama voters feel sick and nauseated today.
Fourth, unless new leadership emerges fairly soon, the new ethics reforms we need in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government may NOT come from the current ranks of elected state officials. They are simply too corrupt, too compromised, too afraid, or too weak to lead Alabama voters toward a better future. For example, no one holding office in the executive branch of state government confronted Governor Robert Bentley about his "sex for power" scandal with Rebekah Mason, condemned his shameful conduct, and publicly demanded his resignation. Also, no member of the Alabama Senate or House of Representative has publicly stood with the voters of Alabama who are demanding tougher new ethics reform legislation to minimize the chances of the Hubbard and Bentley-like culture of engrained public corruption from ever happening in Alabama again. Finally, no fellow justice on the Alabama Supreme Court has reigned in Chief Justice Roy Moore's out-of-control "I am above the law" antics or publicly schooled Moore on the fact that America practices a democracy, as opposed to the theocracy he seeks to force on the people of Alabama.
Who will emerge from the shambles of four public corruption scandals to lead Alabama?
It will not be Mike Hubbard. He's gone. It will not be Robert Bentley. He will be gone soon, courtesy of federal prosecutors. It will not be Roy Moore. He is a second-chance politician who uses the Bible and its Ten Commandments as political props to advance his relentless efforts to install a theocratic form of government in Alabama. It will not be Senate President Del Marsh. He tried in vein to usher in a new "Trojan horse" fraud scheme called the Governor's Prison Reform Plan. His empty political wagon is now looking for another load of fraud to pull.
Thankfully, social media and online journalism have made it nearly impossible for today's public corruption crooks to hoodwink voters with the old "hid the ball" tricks that worked so well in the past. The governor and other top officials cannot get the safe passage from online journalists likeRoger Alan Shuler and me that they had become accustomed to receiving from mainstream media by simply spoon-feeding them the PR "spin of the day".
I think the vast majority of Alabama voters want to reshuffle the political deck and select fresh faces as their next governor, Senate President, House Speaker, and Chief Justice. The old political guard has failed Alabama voters. What is worst, they have betrayed the public's trust in the process.
The vast majority of Alabama voters are good and decent people. They work hard everyday; they take care of their children and seek a better future for them: they obey our state and federal laws, even the ones they don't personally agree with; they pay their fair share of taxes; they believe in God or their religious faith's version of a supreme being; they help their neighbors in need; they honor their wives and husbands with marital fidelity; they play by the rules in work and business; they believe that every Alabamian deserves to experience accountable, transparent, and ethical state government; and they proudly serve our state and nation in a multitude of heartfelt and significant ways without ever asking for anything in return. This is who we are as a people.
As evidenced by their chorus of silence in the face of the Hubbard, Bentley, Moore and Marsh scandals, most of the elected officials in state government do not embody or practice these core values while serving in public office. As Hubbard, Bentley, Moore and Marsh have shown Alabamians, they only represent special interest groups and mostly served themselves.
Alabama voters do not want this kind of government leadership anymore. From this day forward, Alabama voters only want ethical public officials who are committed to public service and who are capable of rendering it without seeking personal gain. From now until Election Day in 2018, we will work in a nonpartisan way to find and aggressively support highly qualified candidates who are willing to service Alabama voters with the integrity, honor, dignity, and ethical standards of conduct we deserve.
Now is the time for a new cadre of candidates for top statewide offices to step forward and show voters what true leadership is. Alabama needs them now. The old political paradigm is dead or dying. The painful birth of the new political paradigm is happening now. From the shambles of the Hubbard, Bentley, Moore and Marsh scandals, fresh new political candidates will step forward to lead Alabama to the long-deferred, bright future this state so richly deserves.
Donald V Watkins
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