Why anyone would want to do something that makes it difficult for folks to get health care and health insurance at a price that can be afforded…well…Jeebers (shakes head in disgust).
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Except that his constituents – the woe begotten area that constitutes Eastern Kentucky, I mean southwestern Virginia, votes more reliably Republican than nearly any other in the state. It’s hard to cry for people who so consistently screw themselves over. They do it because they still think coal will rise again if only they vote Republican.
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His job (on the tobacco commission) got pulled; I don’t know if he was able to get the Republicans to give him another one as a payoff. His daughter was already a judge on a temporary basis and needed him to resign in order to retain her position, so her nomination couldn’t be revoked; it only needed to be confirmed by the Senate.
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Why didn’t I think he had it in him? Because he’d proven himself to be a magnet for big money as Chair of the DNC and NOT as some kind of liberal stalwart.
Nothing wrong with raising money, it’s just that he was known as being a political money chaser of the DC cocktail set and a successful one at that. A fighter? Um, nope. Right now, he’s coming out fighting which is a welcome relief.
You’re a bit confused. The job was to compensate him for his resignation from the state Senate. And, no, he didn’t get the job. He withdrew from consideration among all the furor. But it’s more complicated than it appears. Puckett was probably targeted by the Republicans because he was vulnerable over his daughter. She needed to be confirmed for her judgeship by the Senate, but the Senate has nepotism rules which would prevent that as long as her father was a state Senator. The Va. House, which has no such rules, had already confirmed her. So if Puckett resigned, the Senate would confirm his daughter (the Republican majority would see to it) and the Republicans would provide him a job on the Tobacco Commission so he wouldn’t be out of pocket. Puckett represented the district that comprises the southwest corner of Va. so he was pretty far right for a Democrat anyway. Southwest Va. is pretty red since it’s the only thing that keeps West Virginia from being part of Tennessee and along with eastern Kentucky and all of West Virginia is all Appalachia.
What it comes down to in the end is how much would you do for your daughter?
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Except that this guy was a Democrat. I can feel for him a little because the Republicans were using his daughter as leverage to get him to do what they wanted, but he needed to factor in how many people would be hurt by giving in to them.
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We (D)s have so few bombthrowers.
Hell, I’d nominate a few from this blog community just to do so.
What I’m most pleased with is the refreshing of this incident as a reminder for the next two years-- that (D)s now-in-office not capitulate under pressure from local or state RWNJs.
jw1
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would be interesting to have a follow-up on Phillip Puckett
typically a cockroach like this hides out in a dark corner for a period of time - and then later emerges in some comfortable situation.
- but then again, the Virginia GOP may feel that he has no remaining value & simply forgets to return his calls.
Around the governor’s mansion, it is reported he was saying Puckett should “rot in hell”. Considering the poor folks who will now die from preventable causes due to lack of access to primary care, he has a point!
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He was quite a clown as a Clinton surrogate in 08. Glad to see governing well in VA, in spite of quisling Dems in the legislature.
No, McAuliffe could not have done so. In Virginia, the governor does not appoint judges, the legislature does. There is, I believe, a joint legislative committee that makes nominations and then they are voted on by the full membership of both houses of the legislature.
The only exception is in the case of unexpired terms, and that’s probably because the Virginia legislature only meets briefly (about two months during the year in the off-year short terms, and maybe four or five during the longer terms), so when a judgeship becomes vacant, it almost certainly will need to be filled before the legislature meets again. That was the case with Puckett’s daughter, she was nominated by the governor to fill someone’s unexpired term, but it was a temporary appointment, and she was up for re-confirmation.
No, I think you are quite wrong about that. My impression from what I have heard of her was that she was well thought-of in that position. (It is a family court judgeship, not a criminal court or a normal civil court.)[quote=“midnight_rambler, post:23, topic:13584”]
His job (on the tobacco commission) got pulled;
[/quote]
No, he removed himself from consideration for it.
Great synopsis FMD.
Though if I had a daughter-- yes, I’d likely do anything for her.
But that ‘anything’ boundary sets afar the actions of what he did.
I have a conscience.
Apparently Puckett has become inured to the possibility of human suffering that will continue on levels large and small for perhaps a decade-- maybe more. During which many will die and/or suffer in pain from lack of healthcare-- solely on the decision of one assh^le: Phil Puckett.
May Phil Puckett and his daughter feel the rightful slings and arrows fired in waves-- at their good fortune from ill-gotten means.
jw1
The Senate has been known to waive those rules in special circumstances, and the opinion of most of the pundits I read on the subject was that this would normally have been one of those circumstances – her initial appointment wasn’t from the Senate, it was from the governor, to fill a vacated seat, so there was no conflict of interest involved in it. This was simply a re-confirmation of a job she already held. But Republicans decided to use a strict adherence to the rules as leverage over Puckett. I still blame him for caving to them, but I do understand the quandary he was in.
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Say the words, Modell: unnecessary deaths of others.
Someone should release Puckett’s address so folks can start submitting their medical bills.
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Yes, I always felt that this was more about his daughter than about the job or even the Senate majority. He was maneuvered into a position where the only way for his daughter to be confirmed was for him to resign. The job offer was just a little added juice to help make his decision easier. In essence, they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
God they’re all scumbags.
He could have refused it. Giving in to Republican bullies is what is wrong with this country.
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What a creep. Puckett has no conscience.
I’m sure Puckett has a nice soft pillow stuffed with all kinds of GOP blood money to rest his poor tired head on…
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