Darren White appointment; political cronyism?

Is the Pope a Catholic? Does a bear whiz in the woods?

Among standards of conduct that apply to pols and public servants;

• thou shalt not create the appearance of a conflict of interest
• and thou shalt not create the appearance of impropriety.

These standards are necessary because creating even the
"appearance" of political cronyism does every bit as much
damage to confidence in the trustworthiness of our government,
as cronyism itself; perception is reality.

Consider then the appointment by Governor Susana Martinez of Darren White to the Judicial Standards Commission.

If you google; +"Darren White" +"Judicial Standards Commission", you will get nearly 3700 hits; nearly all of them pointing to the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety, and political cronyism.

They point out a number of really good reasons to pass over White in the search for an appointee; two votes of no confidence by his subordinates would be high on my list of reasons to look for someone more qualified.

Martinez must have seen this coming.
How could she have not seen it coming?

She did it anyway. Why?

She did it for the same reason a dog licks his balls,
because (s)he can.


Why does a Governor
deliberately create the
appearance of impropriety
without consequence?

because she can.

Why does a Governor
appointee a political crony
to a position of stature?

because she can.

She did it because she could.

And to hell with everyone who sees impropriety, conflicts of
interest and political cronyism. There's nothing they can do
about it, even if they wanted to.

Must we be hit in the head with a brick?




photos Mark Bralley