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Thurs: Over and Out
posted at 2010-01-22 07:52 | Last modified 2010-01-22 07:52
It’s one of those days where you hardly know where to start. Also, not a good day to be an NC Dem. Ouch.
7AM: #Thingsyoualreadyknew
It all started with John Edwards’s long-overdue admission to NBC that he’s the father of paramour Rielle Hunter’s child. Edwards’ statement, delivered on NBC this morning by attorney Harrison Hickman, was long on mea culpas but short on explanation.
Later in the day, we learned that a) Edwards is now in Haiti, not quite the place for anyone trying to avoid the media, and b) Elizabeth is “relieved” John fessed up, but won’t confirm or deny reports they’ve separated.
Dem strategy guru Gary Pearce and veteran N&O reporter Rob Christensen were both kind enough to show up on State of Things on ridiculously short notice with me today for a great roundup on Edwards, Brown, Wilson, et al. If you missed it, it’s here.
Meantime, Game Change authors Halperin and Heilemann talked to Dome about their scathing Edwards chapter, while his former press sec Jennifer Palmieri said in a WaPo column that Elizabeth Edwards is being unfairly maligned.
Here’s what I really want to know: Why didn’t Edwards just admit his paternity while he admitting everything else in 2008? Was he really, as Game Change says, under some delusion he’d be a viable Obama cabinet nominee as long as his cheating on his cancer-afflicted wife didn’t result in progeny? I can’t buy that. People call Edwards a lot of things, but "dumb" doesn’t generally make the top five . So what’s the real story?
10AM: Citizens United
The US Supreme Court called a special session today to announce a decision in the Citizens United suit. If you haven’t been following this, here’s a good layman's recap from NPR. The legalese verion is here, and today’s SupCo opinion is here (PDF).
In a oversimplified nutshell, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the same right (with some restrictions) as voters to give money to a political candidate or cause. The ruling pretty much insures messier and more expensive elections, making politicians proportionally more dependent on backers who can give them a lot of money – like, say, corporations or labor unions.
Reactions from good-government groups here and nationwide were every bit as negative as you’d expect. Democracy NC, Common Cause, and NCVCE all condemned the decision, as did President Obama, who pledged to push new legislation limiting corporate influence in elections.
A nice thought, maybe, but it’s not exactly clear what Congress can do. If a corporation, for political as well as business purposes, is a person, and political contributions are equivalent to free speech, then banning corporate political contributions is the same thing as banning individual free speech. Outside of an amendment, I can’t see what Congress could do to rein things in that wouldn’t be held unconstitutional.
On the upside, maybe this means we can trade in the two-party system for a political sponsorship system, kind of like NASCAR – the Walmart ticket, the Google ticket, or Team Morgan-Chase, or Glaxo, or Monsanto. Kidding. But not entirely. .
10:30: Zach Ambrose resigns
Governor Bev Perdue’s office confirmed chief of staff Zach Ambrose is moving on “to spend more time with his family.” Don’t get me wrong: it’s not unusual for campaign-type staffers to transition out during the first year of a winner’s term of office. But so close on the heels of the departure of press secretary Dave Kochman, and in the shadows of Perdue’s subterranean sub-optimal poll numbers…well, you can do the math. It's not good news.
11:00: Lanny Wilson “resigns”
Longtime Dem fundraiser and Board of Transportation member Lanny Wilson decided out of the blue today that he’d become too much of a distraction to Governor Perdue’s BOT reform effort. Which is odd, given that his name has barely surfaced since the Easley elections board hearings several weeks ago.
While Perdue accepted his resignation with little fanfare, the GOP was predictably quick to jump on the resignation as further proof of Dem corruption, blasting Perdue for not firing Wilson in the first place. But it’s not hard to see Perdue’s hand in this one – unless of course you’re invested in not seeing it.
4:00: Ruffin Poole indicted
Federal prosecutors released a 51- (no, that’s not a typo) count indictment against former Gov Mike Easley’s legal aide and law partner Ruffin Poole. WRAL was first to break the news that the “Little Governor” faces a potential three-digit jail sentence and millions in fines for charges ranging from extortion to money laundering. The AP’s Gary Robertson has more background here. And the indictment itself is quite a read – check it out (warning - big PDF).
The charges stem from a concurrent probe by the FBI and the State Elections Board into allegations of campaign finance fraud, influence peddling, and outright bribery within or close to the Easley campaign. But while it’s a safe bet Poole won’t be alone in the federal dock, it’s not at all clear from the indictment whether it’ll be Easley keeping him company. None of the figures in the indictment fits Easley’s description. That doesn’t mean he will or won’t be indicted for something at some point. But for those critics hoping Poole would bring Easley down, it’s pretty clear that isn’t the case - not at the moment, anyway.
Comment? Drop me a line.
