Cross-posted at BlueCommonwealth.com, the successor to RK nee Raising Kaine
There is a disturbing report today in Bloomberg News about the financial ethics of our Governor -- and, importantly, future head of the Democratic National Committee -- Tim Kaine.
I encourage everyone to read the whole piece, but here are a few choice grafs:
Kaine, 50, is the chairman of the Southern Governors’ Association, a group that raises money from tobacco, oil, energy and pharmaceutical companies in exchange for access to governors and other state officials.
The donors include more than 60 associations, trade groups and companies, including tobacco giants Altria Group Inc. and Lorillard Tobacco Company, Pfizer Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. Participants in the group’s Corporate Affiliates Program also include mortgage lender Freddie Mac, which was taken over by the federal government last year, and General Motors Corp., which is among automakers being rescued by the government.
...
The Web site also lays out the benefits of sponsorship for companies or their lobbyists.
Richmond, Virginia-based Altria, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, is a Gold Level member, entitling the company to four invitations to a "private reception" with the governors at the group’s annual meeting, preferred seating with at least one governor at the meeting’s dinner, invitations to quarterly breakfasts attended by the governors’ staff advisory committee emissaries, and invitations to periodic Washington "‘coffee breaks’ with governors."
A spokesman for Altria, Bill Phelps, said the company sends lobbyists to SGA functions as "part of our efforts to engage in public-policy efforts that affect our business."
It's unusual for a spokesman such as Bill Phelps to let so much truth escape his lips with that last quote -- why, yes, of course the reason that groups like Altria and Dominion enjoy the ability to buy access to powerful politicians is in order to get the policies that they like. It's what we, the citizens, have been complaining about for years now.
Believe it or not, the story gets more disturbing for Kaine:
One Silver Level member, Dominion Resources Inc., a Richmond, Virginia-based power company, flew Kaine and a top aide to a 2007 SGA meeting in Mississippi, according to a report in the Richmond Times Dispatch.
"That was just a matter of convenience," Hickey, Kaine’s spokesman, said.
"They were going, so he just hitched a ride," Dominion spokesman Chet Wade said. Another passenger on the plane was Bob Blue, who was then Dominion’s vice president, state and federal affairs and a registered state lobbyist in Virginia, Wade said.
The jet was "going anyway and had the room, kind of like when my neighbors are going somewhere, you get a hitch," he said.
(Emphasis added.) Uh, huh. I wonder if I could get such a ride? But it gets even better. A few paragraphs earlier in the piece, one of Kaine's spokespeople had the following to say:
Hickey said that as SGA chairman Kaine has made climate change his priority. He said the governor ruled out creating an SGA advisory group that would charge companies a fee for involvement in the initiative.
"It’s fine if SGA wants to reach out to their sponsors to make sure they know how to provide input, but we will also solicit input from companies who are not donors," Kaine’s policy director told his Washington aide in a Sept. 8 e-mail that Hickey provided.
Right. We won't "charge them a fee" to participate, but we'll just spend a few hours on their private jet -- you know, just being neighborly and all. And of course there's absolutely no conflict of interest in rhetorically supporting efforts to combat global warming while at the same time taking free in kind donations from coal electric companies like Dominion.
This is terrible politics, it is unethical, and it is destructive of a government of the people, by the people, for the people. This makes me very, very skeptical of, if not outright hostile to, Tim Kaine succeeding Howard Dean as the titular head of our Party.
Who of Brian Moran, Creigh Deeds, or Terry McAuliffe will forswear all such pay-to-play aspects of politics; will refuse to accept any corporate donations; and will implement far-looking efforts to integrate citizen lobbyists and citizen ideas into their campaign and governing efforts? The answer to that question will probably determine which candidate I decide to support in June, if any.
Tim Kaine ought to be ashamed. We need a Governor in 2010 that won't get caught in this same web of deceit and corruption.