Nebraska Attorney General and US Senate candidate Jon Bruning seems to follow the George Bush model of enforcing the law: if he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to follow it. Not only that, but when someone points out that he's not following the law, he gets downright snotty.
Seems Mr. Bruning hasn't filed a single Equal Housing Opportunity case since he took office six years ago. Now the USEEOC threatens to yank funding for the Nebraska EEOC because no lawsuits have been filed.
Here's the rest of the story:
According to the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal Star, Bruning met with the director of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission a couple of weeks ago. The director pointed out that the AG's office had not filed any lawsuits. The AG doesn't have to do so, according to a statement by Bruning's deputy:
Under state law, the attorney general’s office is required to file lawsuits in district court when a citizen whose housing discrimination case is determined to have merit asks for that help.
During the past five years, 39 citizens have asked for that help. According to [NEOC Director] Hobbs, the attorney general’s office has not filed a case.
And since Hobbs became director in 2005, the NEOC staff has worked "closely" with the attorney general’s office on nine cases. Two of those cases were settled out of court. No lawsuits were filed by the attorney general’s office on the other seven, Hobbs said.
Did you catch that? 39 requests for help that went to the AG. Not one was determined to have "merit." How do we know? Bruning's deputy makes it all crystal clear:
Bruning’s office said the attorney general does not have to take every housing case to court, despite state law. The response also suggests NEOC investigations on some cases would not meet requirements for success in court.
The attorney general’s constitutional authority to select which cases to take into court trumps the requirement that the agency move forward with every case, said Chief Deputy Attorney General Dave Cookson.
There is a difference in standards between evidence that can be used before the commission to determine if discrimination took place and evidence that can be succesfully used in court, he said.
The attorney general’s office must also have "competent and reliable evidence," Cookson said.
This is similar to the difference between decisions police officers make to arrest and prosecutors make to prosecute, he said.
(emphasis added.)
I don't know about any of the current or former attorneys out there, but from my experience when I was practicing, if the police make 39 arrests, you can bet more than ... well ... more than none of them will go to court.
But it wasn't enough for the lovely and talented Mr. Bruning to decide he doesn't have to fool around with those meritless housing complaints. This time, it was personal:
During [a recent private] meeting, the attorney general "began to attack me and instructed my commission that they should fire or replace me as executive director," Hobbs said in a letter . . . and during a Friday NEOC board meeting.
Others at the meeting said Bruning raised his voice and made personal comments about Hobbs
Does any of this sound like someone else we know? Someone who thinks that his duty to enforce the law is purely discretionary? Who has signed multiple bills while saying, "I'm not going to enforce this."
Bruning already has a reputation of being a far right wing, Bush model conservative. From the start, he's run a student body right in his campaign for Senate. (NB: in Nebraska, one is required to use at least one football analogy), He is standing up and cheering for the war in Iraq, all of Bush's policies, and anything else that would link him to the Imperium. Even during his first campaign for Attorney General, he openly stated that he would not enforce certain laws he thought were wrong, such as Nebraska's Family Farm Act.
With a Senate candidate poised to annoy the fundamental "Nebraska common sense" (whatever that may be), the GOP may have been concerned. Of course no one has actually admitted it, but the GOP apparently learned its lesson from the Don Stenberg campaign for Senate a few years back: former AG Stenberg was roundly rejected by the good people of Nebraska because he was a far right wing nutball. Faced with the same prospect if Bruning were the only candidate, it would leave the GOP very, very vulnerable to a Democratic candidate of the Ben Nelson model (i.e., GOP-lite). So in comes relief candidate Johanns, whom everybody loves.
Odds are this won't affect the outcome of the primary. Barring a miracle on the order of loaves and fishes, Mike Johanns will walk away with the nomination. But Bruning is fighting dirty and will force Johanns to spend money just to make sure Jonny boy doesn't win by a fluke. Then we get to see who the Democrats can scare up to run, or whether they'll just roll over and concede the seat now.
Once the primary is over, maybe we can get about the business of impeaching Bruning.
[slap] Who am I kidding? Bush will give him a medal.