From the story, it sounds like things that were hardly worth worrying about. I mean, if he asked a staffer who likes dogs to take his pooch home for the weekend, is that really so bad? It might be over the line, but there are far worse things being done all the time. And if he asked an aide to stop on the way back from lunch to buy some cigs–for which he paid–is that really corruption?
There is SO much corruption in government that we should concentrate attention on the important stuff, not the little things.
Yesterday’s man…would rather read snippets from a half-dozen of today’s House freshman class.
dog sitting and buying him cigarettes
Obviously, Mr. Garrett won’t make it into the GOP Grifting Hall of Fame…
At least Rep. Garrett didn’t have his staffers buy cigarettes for the dog.
The committee in June then launched an expedited investigation, which it says was delayed by staffers and the Garretts refusing to cooperate.
Garrett says the report is based on “half-truths and whole lies.”
Now if there had been some way the Rep. Garrett could have told his side…sad that.
As noted in The Knapp Commission’s Report, decades ago, there are your grass eaters, and there are your meat eaters.
Can you imagine if a Democrat had done that?
I’m skeptical of the broken-windows theory of policing in most cases… but not when powerful people start to casually abuse their power. That is something that almost invariably escalates.
Shitting on the secretary matters, every time.
Just a penny-ante piker, really, in the big scheme of GOP grifting…
Really. He just aimed too low. He should have tried a lot harder if he wanted to retain favor with Trumpers.
So the guy who quit because he’s an admitted alcoholic is annoyed that his former employer issued a report finding that he misused his staffers for some penny-ante crap while ignoring that he was a drunk the whole time he was in office. Good to know he’s got his priorities straight.
If this was enough to make republican staffers complain, the listed allegations are likely tip of the iceberg. Especially if he decided not to run for re-election as a result. If he cited “struggle with alcoholism” as his reason for quitting, I’m betting either drunken abuse or myriad episodes of collecting him from wherever he ended up.
(And yes, for many people alcoholism is a real addiction/illness. But when you’re a republican in a position of power you don’t get to use it as an excuse when you’re caught.)
And what we actually know about Garrett is probably the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There is a reason he and his wife have not cooperated with the investigation of these rather low level improprieties. And they are probably covering up many more and more serious ethical and probably legal violations.
Go read the story on WaPo. There’s a lot more to this than occasional dog sitting and a cigarette run.
Thanks for the tip.
Some details from the WaPo article for anyone who missed it.
“Staffers in Garrett’s office were asked to carry groceries for the congressman and his wife, care for their dog, drive and service their car, schedule their medical appointments and help them move between apartments, according to the report. Garrett also asked staffers to help his children obtain passports and apply to schools, buy him cigarettes and give tours to people who were not his constituents, the report states.
Several staffers told the committee that Garrett’s wife “would berate staff, often using profanity and other harsh language, for failing to prioritize her needs over their regular official duties.”“