Hawpe ok with corruption

A staggering column from David Hawpe in the C-J (hat tip: KyPolitics.org who is cited in Hawpe's essay)...

I don't know any of the characters in the story. And independent of Hawpe's overall admiration for Blandford (deserved or not), condoning (or even appearing to condone) bribery is simply unacceptable. To prefer a corrupt politician to a group of politicians with whom he disagrees is incredible.

Hawpe takes offense the labeling of an ex-con and former federal inmate as "an ex-con and former federal inmate". But it's accurate. Moreover, if a public official violates the public trust in such an egregious manner, then he will be known for that offense (perhaps exclusively). In this era of politics and media, that's the way it always is-- even for far more minor offenses. In any era, it should be that way with major offenses. Democracy is, ironically, both too important and too flawed to undermine it in this manner.

Finally, can we expect Hawpe to rise in defense of those on the other side of the aisle when they run into similar criticisms in similar circumstances? If not, so much for objective journalism or editorializing.

...Now let me say right up front that Blandford, BOPTROT notwithstanding, is one of my legislative heroes....

Give me Blandford any day, rather than the naysayers in today's GOP-controlled state Senate who pooh-pooh Kentucky government's budget crises and shrug off their duty to respond.

I invoke here the words of the one truly great president of the 20th Century, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who insisted, in his 1936 presidential nomination acceptance speech, "Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales."...