Dallas City Hall scandal hasn’t ranked high on my news meter
I'd like to thank everyone for the calls and e-mails asking me if I was avoiding the scandal at Dallas City Hall. I know it was the front page story in the Dallas Morning News this week, but it just didn't rank all that high on my news meter.
Sure this is important, ethics and morality always are. But Dallas City Hall has seen much worse than what we are hearing about now without so much as a peep in the news. This has been a two-year investigation, so it's not new to most.
If the defendants are guilty they are guilty. If they are innocent they are innocent. But one thing that was made clear in the Michael Vick case is that when the Feds bring charges, they don't lose.
A recent DMN article suggests that (Don) Hill, others may not have funds to keep top-notch lawyers. I've talked with a few black public officials who said African-Americans get into politics without fully realizing the costs associated with the gig they signed up for. They then become susceptible to money schemes that seem to be part of the government culture, but the poor choice to engage can be costly.
What's been most troubling to me has been the low dollar amounts these officials were indicted over. $1,500 here, $5,000 or $30,000 there as far as published amounts. I mean if you were going to throw your political career away, it seems like it would be over more money.
Question: Why were James Fantroy's Paul Quinn embezzlement charges brought on the same day as the Hill/Hodge/Lee kickback charges? As far as I've read, the two have nothing to do with each other.
Scandal usually brings one more visibility and eventually more money right? Nixon still spoke, G. Gordon Liddy still speaks, and look at Clinton and Lewinsky. We'll all get over it…unfortunatly.
