Public Corruption

The pleasure part being the collection of campaign contributions:

The budget timing raises questions about decreased opportunities for public input and the possibility of legislators mixing fundraising with decision-making. Brubaker downplayed the significance of the change because the budget basics are already set.

Okay, the reporter's first mistake was asking Harold Brubaker's opinion about campaign contributions. I hesitate to step into the miasma of the Pope/Morgan feud, but campaign money isn't one of Brubaker's strong suits:

Granted, History is an art and not a science, but damn:

"If the right people want to take you out of the picture, stepping on the sideline is absolutely prohibited. So, that's just how it happened."

Stepping on the sideline? Dude, you charged through the crowd, ran cross-country for awhile, hopped a boxcar, caught a freighter to Vladivostok, and then tried to stow away on one of those travel-to-space-for-a-million-dollars Russian rockets. Sheesh.

But the tarring, feathering, and riding out of town on a rail probably won't happen:

The plea to a felony would be entered in state court. As part of the deal, federal authorities would not take any other action against Easley.

Under sentencing guidelines, Easley is unlikely to receive an active prison sentence. He would face a possible fine, and the potential loss of his law license.

I can hear the right-wing parrots now, clearing their throats of cracker dust so they can add this new name to their incessantly chanted list of crooked Democrats. What was that? I didn't hear you the 47th time you said it...

I know that many of us worked towards achieving less Merritt, and for a while it seemed like we might actually have accomplished no Merritt. But alas, that is not to be:

In downtown Raleigh - just down the street from the State Capitol - a new watchdog group is working to expose government corruption. It's called the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service.

"We believe this could be a significant complement to counter public corruption, which I do believe is growing," offered Frank Perry.

Perry spent 22 years with the FBI and ran the Raleigh Bureau office in the years after the September 11 attacks. Most recently, he worked for the State Ethics Commission and the State Auditor's Office.

Now, he's joining forces with former State Auditor Les Merritt in creating the foundation.