Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Now, The Sharks Are Turning on Each Other

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by

Peter Galuszka
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mcdonnell-1 By Peter Galuszka

You know something bad is up when Gov. Robert F. McDonnell starts turning on his gift-giving pal Jonnie R. Williams Sr. of Star Scientific and federal prosecutors.

On Friday, the troubled dietary supplement maker filed securities documents saying that the firm has been told by federal prosecutors that it would not be charged criminally in their probe of McDonnell’s acceptance of gifts and loans.

Rich Galen, the Sherpa McDonnell has hired to get him through the scandal, has said that the feds are giving Williams “a free pass” which apparently means that Williams will turn state’s evidence against McDonnell. And that apparently means that the chances of McDonnell’s being indicted are higher, not lower.

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Galen “contrasted” McDonnell’s 37 years of public service with Williams, whom Galen said  “has been in trouble with government entities since the earliest days of his business career.”

Now that is a mouthful. And it is very strange given that McDonnell, who told me that he has known Williams for five or six years, has been such a close personal friend with Williams that he has accepted $165,000 in gifts and loans from him, has stayed at his lakeside vacation home, his wife has flown around in his airplane and has gotten a New York City shopping spree (including a $6,5000 Rolex for Bob). The McDonnells have given the goodies back.

The RTD naturally buried the story in a standard chest thumper that puts Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Cuccinelli on the attack in pointing out his opponent Terry McAuliffe’s problems with his own business deals. (I often read TD stories from the end to beginning because the lede is usually at the end or in the middle).

Now it seems that McDonnell is going on the campaign trail this week to prop his reputation. One would think he might be going on the hustings to help Cuccinelli. But, no, Cuccinelli is trying to distance himself as much as he can from McDonnell even though Cuccinelli got $18,000 in gifts from Williams. Unlike the governor, the attorney general is not giving them back.

Chris LaCivita, a Cuccinelli advisor, actually gave this bizarre explanation for Cuccinelli’s decision to keep the stuff. The attorney general has seven kids and has to manage his family budget. Ethical transgressions are acceptable if you have a lot of children. Who knew?

The upshot is that McDonnell appears to be in very deep trouble with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office.

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8 responses to “Now, The Sharks Are Turning on Each Other”

  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I predict no matter how deep McDonnell gets in trouble with the Feds, the RoVa base and rank and file, will forgive him because it’s better to support a crooked politician who aligns with you philosophically than someone who does not – no matter what.

    in the ongoing partisan political wars, – every man is needed on deck – no matter their “imperfections”….

    McDonnell will not be driven from the party – they will just let him line up on the back row until the stink starts to dissipate..

  2. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    So, Peter, you seem to find it unseemly that Cuccinelli refuses to return his gifts to Williams. Let’s review what those gifts were:

    2012 — $3,000 — summer lodging for family vacation
    2011 — $6,711 — box of food supplements
    2011 — $3,254 — transportation to a meeting in Kentucky
    2011 — $3,000 — use of a lake house and boat
    2010 — $1,500 — Thanksgiving lodging and dinner
    2010 — $800 — temporary lodging at residence
    2009 — $628 — transportation to New York City

    Other than the (bizarre) box of food supplements, those gifts are “in kind,” the kind of gifts that other governors have received without comment. If you expect Cuccinelli to “pay back” the value of those gifts, do you believe that Tim Kaine should pay back his gift of a stay in a vacation house in the Caribbean? Do you expect other elected officials to do the same?

    In other words, are you interested in being consistent, or are you simply interested in flaying Cuccinelli with any tool at hand?

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      I keep hearing Republicans claiming that Cuccinelli is an entrepreneur because he started a law office which is still in business today (although without Mr. Cuccinelli’s involvement). You’d think a successful entrepreneur could scape up $18,000 to do the right moral thing. Apparently not.

      Cuccinelli gets paid $150,000 per year. That’s a matter of public record. He also claims to have received a $30,000 advance on his book. Also a matter of public record. That’s $180,000. However, he says that he doesn’t 1/10th of his annual compensation available to pay back the value of the gifts. He’s either lying or a serious spendthrift. Either way that bodes poorly for his chances of success as governor.

      The Republican apologists like Jim cling to the theory that Cuccinelli shouldn’t have to pay back the value of his gifts from Jonnie Williams. However, Cuccinelli himself is less convinced. This is what Cuccinelli said before he pleaded poverty – “You mean just write a check? If I could do that, I just might do that.”. Gee Jim, it seems that your own candidate isn’t sufficiently brazen to claim that accepting the gifts was OK. Cuccinelli then went on to put his foot squarely in his mouth by claiming that despite starting a successful law firm, earning a six figure income and receiving a $30,000 book advance he just couldn’t afford to pay back the $18,000.

      Let’s review the Cuccinelli gift timeline.

      1. Accepts gifts from Star Scientific and owns more than $10,000 worth of Star Scientific stock.
      2. Fails to full disclose the gifts or the stock as required by law.
      3. Remains involved in the state’s legal battle with Star Scientific.
      4. Tries to avoid embarrassment by being “outed” by the governor’s chef by claiming to have “forgotten” to obey the law (as a sitting Attorney General).
      5. Files amended disclosure statements clearing his selective amnesia.
      6. Recuses himself and his office from the Star Scientific court case.
      7. Virginia receives the first legal bill for the defense of Bob McDonnell by outside counsel. It for one month’s work and totals $53,000. The outside counsel was necessitated by Cuccinelli’s recusal of the office of the Attorney General from the Chefgate matter.

      I’m sorry Jim but your attempts to apologize for Cuccinelli are falling on increasingly deaf ears all across Virginia.

  3. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Gee Jim,
    I know I’m not an elected Republican official but when I want to go to the Outer Banks, I stroke a check to the realtor. When I want to go to Wintergreen with my tennis club for our annual tune-up, I write a check to the tennis pro.
    That’s what Cuccinelli should do — write a check to Jonnie Williams paying him back. Simple.
    Of course, I am not an elected Republican official and I only have two children, not seven, so I guess the ethics standards for me are higher.

    1. DJRippert Avatar
      DJRippert

      I would say that it’s not just the Republicans who are giftaholics in Virginia. However, your other points are dead on.

      Look at a guy like Ken Cuccinelli or Bill Bolling. They seem to have very friends and not very generous friends as newly minted legislators. The pocket the odd gift here and there but it’s small potatoes. Then, the get elected to higher office. All of the sudden they have lots of very generous friends. The value of the gifts pile up, up, up. Doesn’t it seem funny that the amount of influence you have to peddle is directly correlated to the number of generous friends you have? I’d guess that their gift tally drops like a stone through water once they retire from politics.

      These gifts represent the selling of access and influence – nothing less.

  4. RVAGates Avatar
    RVAGates

    I agree with DJR, presuming his point is that these “friends” come out of the woodwork once the pols make it big (although DJR must’ve written that in haste because there are some confusing edits in there). But I disagree with adding Bill Bolling to that category unless you have evidence that has not been put in the public record. Putting Bolling in the same category as McDonnell or Cuccinelli shows a bias of just going after the biggest names with an (R) next to them.

    I agree with Peter that Cuccinelli should compensate Williams for the freebies he was given. I also agree that Cuccinelli’s family-poverty claim is highly-questionable. However, Peter completely dodged Jim’s extremely fair question about whether Democrats – like Tim Kaine – should be compensating their gift-giving “friends”. In my opinion… YES.

    Here’s hoping we get some major reform on gift-giving and lobbyists. Of course, I have a slight worry that they may go so far that it will only solidify the claim that only the rich can afford to run for office because the average person couldn’t afford to give up their primary source of income.

  5. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    RVGates,
    Thanks. Of course I believe the Dems should be held to the same test. Just don’t want to give any quarter to Bacon!

  6. construction for dummies Avatar
    construction for dummies

    Look this guy is dirty period. Why he does not give the gifts back is a mystery. Why any public official is taking gifts and thinking its ok is even a bigger mystery. I don’t care if it’s legal or not, it’s wrong. Then those that forgot to disclose can just say I’m sorry I forgot to disclose it and the penalty is nothing. We the voting public are the stupid ones. We need to vote those who took gifts out of office. That will help change the laws after we make a list of all the gift getters and vote them out of office this November.

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