Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Megalomania in Maricopa












Yesterday, Andy Thomas was disbarred for being corrupt.  His response was to declare,
Today corruption has won and justice has lost.
A friend described that as "delusional hubris."
Of course, that was an off-the-cuff comment.  Now that he's had a full day to consider, his words are more measured. Michael Kiefer and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez in the Arizona Republic report.
"Someone has to fight for justice," Thomas said, comparing himself to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Really?  Gandhi?  Martin Luther King, Jr.? 
Another friend saw that and wrote
Delusional and paranoid is a bad combo.
Which led yet a third friend to respond.
Not to mention the fact that if either of them were active during his reign, he would have indicted both of them.
Me, I wondered if Thomas just forget to add that his suffering was like that of Jesus on the cross or whether some editor at the Republic deleted that reference?
In yesterday's comments, Thomas referred to a study of state corruption conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, Global Integrity and Public Radio International.  Arizona, Thomas said,
has some of the worst corruption in America.
It's true, maybe.  Arizona got a D+, putting it in the bottom half of the states.  Barely.  It actually ranked 27th out of 50.  (You can read the details here.)  In the Buckeye State, we did worse.  A grade of D, 34th out of 50.
Ohio has no shortage of ethics laws, but it has a history of state officials violating them. 
And our former attorney general, Marc Dann, resigned from office in disgrace, entered guilty pleas to ethics reporting violations, and is fighting not to have his license yanked for 6 months.
But that's for ethical incompetence.  Dann ran the AG's office like a frat house complete with pizza and pajama parties and sexual harassment.  And he screwed up his financial disclosure forms.  No excuse, but not exactly corruption in office, either.
Andy used his office to go after political opponents, really, to go after anyone who looked askance at  Sheriff Joe and his gang of thugs deputies.
And now he's a self-declared martyr.
One more time.

h/t Kathy G, Nick F, & Brian S

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