Where pigs fly, Hell is selling ice cubes, and I can't believe I'm agreeing with him - Granite Grok

Where pigs fly, Hell is selling ice cubes, and I can’t believe I’m agreeing with him

Can I PLEASE put this under “even a stopped clock is right twice a day”?  Here’s the news at which, I have to admit, I just grimaced:

Senate President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, on Tuesday accepted the $180,000-a-year job of running the Local Government Center, the controversial nonprofit that manages health and other insurance plans for cities and school districts across the state.

Bragdon, 50, signed a one-year contract and starts Wednesday as executive director, replacing George Bald, the former state development commissioner who took over at the LGC for the past six months.

…Bragdon said he will remain as Senate leader and intends to seek re-election as senator in 2014. He plans to remain a member of the Milford School Board for a term that runs another 18 months.

As for conflicts of interest, Bragdon said he would abstain from taking part on any legislation related to municipal and school insurance risk pools at the Statehouse and any insurance contracts when the LGC would be a bidder before the town’s school board

Right – the revolving door which has been used WAY too much lately – just another example of one hand of The Ruling Class greasing another hand – of the same Class.  I certainly can’t remember anything like this before (not that I’ve been watching this closely for all that long).  But really – this is just plain ugly.

So now we have the Super-Duper Sterling Political Optics of an NH GOP Chair who didn’t pay her Federal Taxes and now the highest ranking Republican in the State (Ayotte being Federal) getting paid by both sides (yes, $100 still counts as getting paid – taxes do get pulled from it) of the lobby scene – head of those that have to listen to the lobbyists, and then the head honcho that tells lobbyists

Go sic’em

Paint those optics black.  And yes, I can’t believe that I actually agree with

Harrell “Jersey Shore” Kirstein on this:

New Hampshire Democratic Party Communications Director Harrell Kirstein said Bragdon put himself, and the entire leadership of the Senate, into an ethical corner with this move. “Bragdon’s irresponsible decision to accept this position raises serious long-term questions about his ethical judgment,” Kirstein said.

“It is a blatant conflict of interest. How does Sen. Bragdon plan to continue as Senate president while taking a job that raises so many serious concerns? Almost every single issue and/or piece of legislation that comes before the state Senate impacts the LGC or its sister organization, the municipal association.”

Perhaps Bragdon can now use the “Mike Brunelle Defense” where allegation of impropriety were cast at the Exec. Dir. of the NH Democrat Party when he was both a NH State Representative and a paid staffer at the NH Democrat Party simultaneously and tried to defend similar charges of the appearance of impropriety.

Pick the one OR the other and remove all sense of impropriety; sorry Peter – wrong choice to keep both.  No matter what you say, or even what you do (even if you get tracked 24/7/365), this smells bad and looks worse.   Anyone in the know watching this is ALWAYS going to have doubts and be thinking “here’s what we see – but what aren’t we”?

Perceived tainting and an asterisk after your name is what the visualization that is starting to rise up.  How long can this ride effectively last?

Look, this all goes to my conviction that Government HAS to be open, transparent, and with clear processes – this decision puts a dark shade over all of them.  It furthers the meme that non-politically oriented folks have – “they’re all crooks and not a dime’s difference between them all”.  You may end up now being the squeakiest clean pol since Washington (who never lied about cherry trees), but it isn’t going to be believed by most of the voting public.  And the rest of us have grown far too cynical.

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