JD Crowe: ‘Ethics reform’ is Alabama GOP pillow talk for ‘corruption’
This is an opinion cartoon.
Alabama GOP lawmakers are putting the hit on their ethics problem, again. They’ve been watering down and trying to snuff out all that ethics nonsense ever since they put it into play in 2010. That law was so good, it took down the boss guy who helped write it – former House Speaker Mike Hubbard.
Related: Let the ‘Hubbard Games’ ethics trial begin: 13-toon twisted history – al.com
This go-round, the guy carrying the ethics reform water is Matt Simpson, R-Daphne. (He’s the nice guy with the pillow in the cartoon above. You’re welcome, dude.) Sounds like my colleague Kyle Whitmire and Simpson had a little heart-to-heart, and then Kyle had a little heart-to-Hart. Anyway, it’s a great column. Read it all:
Related: Whitmire: Here we go again. Ethics ‘reform’ bill legalizes Alabama corruption. – al.com.
Here are a few excerpts:
“The last time lawmakers tried to upend the state ethics law in 2019, their proposal would have made gifts to public officials legal again and have made bribery a misdemeanor.
“This time around, lawmakers seem to be taking an equally subtle approach — making ethics crimes not crimes anymore.
“Don’t take my word for it. Just read what it says in the bill’s own description of what it does.
“This bill would remove all criminal penalties from the ethics code and would authorize the commission to impose private censures, public reprimands, civil penalties, and restitution,” it says.”
Read all of Whitmire’s column here.
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JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].
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