Posted on 05/08/2007 11:02:35 PM PDT by WayneLusvardi
Californians Are a Forgiving People
Robert Pingel - Pasadena
Pasadena Pundit - May 8, 2007
Did anyone else notice (or care) that the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission recently disclosed that there is "probable cause" to believe that the Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign committee may have racked up 31 violations of finance and disclosure provisions of City law? It received some coverage in the LA Times as well as local TV news. Oddly enough, the general citizen reaction seems to be fairly.....tepid to non-existent. It was only 31 violations for God's sake. Californians are a forgiving people.
What's a few (31) boring ethics violations along the way to becoming the leader of the second largest city in the country? Excuse me if my recollection is faulty, but isn't this the same guy who spent his entire campaign skewering the incumbent James Hahn for corruption and lack of ethics? Back then, Mr. Villaraigosa didn't want voting Angelenos to be so darn forgiving about their mayor. Well, live and learn.
More stunning than the announcement was the formal response: "We have a disagreement with only part of the decision, and will have a discussion with the full Ethics Commision" said spokeswoman Janelle Erickson.
Yeah, and which part do you not have a disagreement with? Excuse me for being cynical but isn't Ms. Erickson saying, in essence, "We agree with the majority of the allegations, but found a few we can colorably nitpick about."
His Honor issued a few words, sans spokesperson. He proclaimed, "These were inadvertent administrative errors which I, and the committee nevertheless take full responsibility for."
In other words, "guilty with an explanation". Are we in Traffic court or what? (Repeat after me, Californians are a forgiving people.)
Among those "paltry" 31 violations, 4 of them alleged accepting non-individual contributions in excess of the $150,000 limit. Exactly how does any half-awake candidate inadvertantly accept contributions in excess of $150,000 on at least 4 occasions? Was there some kind of Attention Deficit Disorder in play? Dyslexia? (Hey, maybe $510,000 looked like $150,000 to the acceptor.) Did the Villaraigosa campaign forego an adding machine, and forget to carry the two or something?
So what precisely was the excess of $150,000 on each of 4 occasions? Are we talking $1.50 (concededly inadvertant and excusable) or many, many, many, many, many dollars more? I'm guessing the latter, but tend to be cynical about political inadvertiveness when it comes to big money. What would the average, non-cynical Californian surmise?
Lets find out, and have some fun in the process. I suggest a special State created lottery game called "Pay to Play". A large cash prize will go to the citizen who comes closest to guessing the cumulative inadvertant overage raked in by the Villaraigosa campaign. In case of ties, the money will be split. Nothing like a rooting interest to keep the citizenry interested.
Of course, the election will not be overturned. No one will go to jail. There's talk of a fine. Ooh, a fine! Yes, definitely. Fines are the acceptable balm for forgiving people. Let's do that. A fine will surely teach the inadvertant Mayor Villaraigosa to never ever ever do this kind of thing again.
California. The twighlight zone.
He’s a RAT. It doesn’t matter. Ted kennedy killed a girl, and he’s still a Senator. It doesn’t matter.
Mighty nice of these moonbats to forgive another moonbat. A similar thing could happen in France, Chirac was another corrupt liberal who’s dodged criminal charges up until now.
Still, it’s nice to see the old double-standard’s alive and well back here in the good ole USA.
I live in California and there are places that are The twighlight zone, not all. On that note this is the 1st I’ve seen of the honorable Villaraigosa’s violations. Haven’t heard it on the local news in NorCal or in the local rag.
nah....they’re too busy carrying on about Limbaugh’s parodies.
Only 31? The guy's a saint!
Why not? They’re overlooking Feinstein’s.
Not by his actions. Villar is a Mexican anchor baby which constitutes sainthood in El Pueblo De Los Angeles.
the first anchor-mayor in US history
LOL, since when do parasites care about “ethics”? It’s all about free stuff, man. As long as the Democrat politicians can continue to confiscate from Republicans who remain in California (like the last white farmers in Zimbabwe) and hand over the “free stuff” to Democrat losers and bums in return for votes, “ethics” has nothing to do with anything.
Corruption while Democrat is no longer a crime. Didn’t you get the MSM Memo on this?
And throwing batteries and pissbombs at the LAPD is protected free speech.
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