No Oversight!

 

By Jeff Simpson

Lamar Alexander (R- Tenn) has been front and center saying that President should resign, and/or many heads should roll because the Affordable Care Act website was not working properly in the beginning:

 “This is the internet age. Even before the internet age McDonald’s could tell you how many hamburgers it was selling every day,” Alexander said.

 

Speaking of heads should roll, while Senator Alexander was busy whining about lack of oversight of the ACA website, his own Chief of Staff was busy also.  

Nashville, Tenn. — U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said Wednesday he has placed his chief of staff on leave after learning the staffer’s home was being searched as part of a child pornography investigation.

In a news release Tuesday, the Tennessee Republican said he had just been informed by the Senate legal counsel’s office that law enforcement agents were conducting a search of Ryan Loskarn’s home. Loskarn is the chief of staff in Alexander’s Washington, D.C., office.

“I am stunned, surprised and disappointed by what I have learned,” Alexander said in the news release.

Walker vs. Walker On Responsibility And Recalls

Last week, Scott Walker spoke about the misdeeds and alleged misdeeds done by his top staff members while he was Milwaukee County Executive. Needless to say, he didn't man up:

Governor Scott Walker says he takes no responsibility for the actions of his former Milwaukee County aides who now face criminal charges in a John Doe probe.

Walker told reporters Thursday that he responded any time he was alerted to a potential problem or an ethical violation involving his staff in the Milwaukee County executive’s office.

The Republican Walker cited Darlene Wink as an example.

Walker said his former chief of staff, Tom Nardelli, confronted Wink just hours after she admitted to the Journal Sentinel in 2010 that she was doing campaign work for Republicans on her county job. And Wink resigned later that day as Walker’s coordinator for constituent relations.

Walker said he informed his staff about the law against doing campaign work on taxpayer time and, “When people violated that policy … we acted.”

Yeah, and we know what that action was.

His action was to send an email, via his campaign's email address, to Tim Russell, who wasn't even working in the executive's office anymore, which specified some of the illegal activities that were going on, with his full knowledge and blessing:

In other words, his action was to worry about his campaign first and nothing at all about the executive's office.

And he didn't fire Darlene Wink, she quit.

But most interesting of all, courtesy of TMJ4, is what Walker has to say about leaders who underlings do something illegal, even if they weren't ordered to (the fun starts about the 1:07 mark):



So in Walker's own words, the conviction of Darlene Wink and the charges against Tim Russell, Kelly Rindfleisch and Kevin Kavanaugh are, at minimum, signs of "certain mindset" that the election campaign was taking priority over government business, and hence, he should be outed.

Finally something I agree with Walker on!

But then why is he acting so much like a petulant, whiny child because we're doing what he said should be done?