By Peter Galuszka
Virginia’s zany attorney general wants to create his own armed, flying squad of crime-busters.
In what could be a 21st century version of “Dragnet,” Kenneth Cuccinelli wants to create his own police force. He wants to arm 40 of the 83 members of his Medicaid fraud investigative arm. They’d have badges, too. Cuccinelli plans on designing them himself, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The bizarre plan has the Virginia law enforcement community up in arms, so to speak. Ken Stolle, a legislator who is now Virginia Beach sheriff, and Wayne Huggins, head of the Virginia State Police Association and former superintendent of the state police, believe that Cuccinelli’s police force could easily stray from fraud into political probes.
And it’s not as if Medicaid fraud has no watchdog. The attorney general’s office has had an investigative unit just for Medicaid for 25 years and the State Police could help with probes and easily handle any gun play, should the situation arise.
What makes the idea even stranger is that Medicaid fraud usually involves wayward doctors or nursing home administrators, in other words, people not likely to pack Uzis in their closets.
Cuccinelli says that his pistol-toting cops would only involve themselves in fraud cases but, of course, would be on the lookout for other wrongdoing.
And, true to his conservative colors, Cuccinelli insists that the plan won’t cost Virginia taxpayers a dime. It could be funded from the $100 million the state is getting from a 2008 settlement in which drug-maker Purdue Pharma LP paid $634 million to states and the District of Columbia for misleading the public about the dangers of OxyContin, a drug it makes.
“The Cooch’s” latest goofy idea might be funny if it weren’t for the tsunami of social conservatism crashed through Richmond. The newly GOP-controlled General Assembly has been on a tear freeing up pistol purchases, requiring pregnant women to have ultrasound exams before an abortion, and considering ordering drug tests on public housing occupants. This ill-advised storm is going to make Virginia once again look ridiculous nationally. One wonders whatever happened to Governor Bob McDonnell’s meticulous efforts to transform his image from social conservative to a moderate — something he’d better get moving if he wants to be a credible vice presidential candidate.
As for the Cooch, giving him his own armed flying squad would be madness. Imagine what would happen to the Old Dominion if he were to be governor? Germany in the early 1930s?
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