Yet another cover-up by the Pawlenty Republicans?

Governor Tim Pawlenty's Commerce Commisioner appointee Glenn Wilson has agreed with the wrong-doer to keep secret a settlement and to not call the $100,000 paid to the state a "fine" in an insurance regulation investigation that lasted two years. Texas-based United American Insurance Company misled hundreds of Minnesota seniors into purchasing policies. Previous Commerce Commissioner Jim Bernstein lambasted the company as deceptive and predatory in a press conference last year, and called Wilson's agreement unprecedented and said,

“ The idea of keeping it secret is breaking faith with the people of Minnesota. You're not allowed to be a shrinking violet in the environment. The people of Minnesota have a right to know what actions are taken against insurance companies, or any companies, that violate state law.”

We Don't Need No Stinking Ethics...

In yet another example of politicians paying only lip-service to ethics, we now read in the paper about how Republican State Auditor Pat Awada audits the very same people who are customers of her political direct mail and signs companies. Of course, self-righteous Awada claims there is no conflict of interest.

But former Governor and State Auditor Republican Arne Carlson says:

“You can't go out and expect to have audit independence when your own company is soliciting the very people that you are auditing.
We have bought into this notion that if it's not illegal, therefore it's OK. That means we will become a society without ethics, only laws.”

Plenty of Excuses

I keep reading letters to the editor and quoted remarks by friends and of associates of Gov. Tim Pawlenty about how he is such a stand-up guy. They say he is honest, highly ethical, sharp, astute at business and law and so forth. Pawlenty is supposed to be so smart about business and legal dealings that Elam Baer's Access Anywhere pay-phone company paid Pawlenty $60,000 for part-time legal and business advice while he was running for governor.

Yet today we find out that Mr. Tim the Brilliant Lawyer did not file a legally-required registration for any company giving legal advice. Yesterday, Mr. Tim the Brilliant Businessman blamed his mistake in filing a financial disclosure on a "confusing form" and bad advice from his tax accountant.

That sure doesn't sound very brilliant to us.

Tim Pawlenty Clones a Human

In an amazing show of courage and advanced science, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who is just a run-of-the-mill lawyer by training, has managed to clone himself. No official announcement of his amazing success has been made, but the evidence is clear. How else can the following factual history be explained?

During 2001 and 2002, Tim managed to do all of these things at once:

1. Run for governor full time
2. Act as House Majority Leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives
3. Make executive strategic decisions as a board member of at NewTel Holdings
4. Run his own company, Bamco
5. Earn $60,000 as a legal advisor to Access Anywhere, a Minneapolis telecom company, working part time over one year
6. Raise 2 children

Imagine how much work and home life you could accomplish if only you had a clone like Tim Pawlenty's to help out. We should demand that Pawlenty reveal his method for producing his clone.

Don your gasmasks!

More and more the stinking, ethical slime pit of Minnesota Republicans connected to the Pawlenty administration look like a who's who list from Jon Grunseth's failed 1990 gubernatorial campaign. For those who don't remember, Jon Grunseth dropped out of the campaign to be replaced by Arne Carlson when it was revealed that he engaged in molesting under age girls.

Look at the roll call:

• Tim Pawlenty, strategist for Grunseth's 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
  
• Victoria Grunseth, former wife, ran unsuccessful campaign for state House seat in 1992. All those companies she supposedl co-founded were "co-"founded by her then husband, Jon. I guess that makes her a rocket scientist.
  
• Elam Baer, senior strategist for Jon Grunseth's failed 1990 campaign.
  
• Timothy Commers, former Young Republican according to my sources, and was Jon Grunseth's driver in the 1990 campaign. He's only 37, so cut him some slack. But don't buy your telephone service from him.
  
• Leon Oistad, involved in various telecom companies, and oh look, he was campaign manager for Jon Grunseth, and former chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota.
  

The list goes on, but heck, just go read all the gory details at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. They've done a good job here and here.

More corruption, more history

We neglected to mention that Tim Pawlenty pal, State Auditor Pat Awada, is also hip-deep in the muddy morass of dishonest telecom companies. Awada ran her own company which was paid to verify that Pawlenty's company was doing legitimate business. State regulators say her company failed in that role.

Then there is Republican strategist Elam Baer, chairman of the board of New Access Communications and advisor to Pawlenty's transition team. A thumbnail outline of these relationships was researched by the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Plenty of graft and corruption

More and more ethical lapses, insider baseball and corruption are making it to the light of day in the Tim Pawlenty administration. The latest revelations regard his dealings in telecom marketing businesses, an industry widely known for exploiting consumers. In fact, the very businesses that Pawlenty was paid by and sat as a board member on were fined over $200,000 in three states in response to consumer complaints.

The list of dirty players includes Governor Pawlenty, his recently resigned Commerce executive Tim Commers and his current chair of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, Vicki Grunseth. Tim Commers was sued for misrepresenting his own telemarketing business. Vicki Grunseth's only "qualifications" for her job are that she was a business executive (ooo! aaah! We are supposed to be impressed, no doubt) for those very same dishonest telecom businesses.

As Matt Entenza said,

"I think it's absolutely clear there is a pattern here of Republican leadership refusing to help consumers and instead working to help their friends and their investment interests. What we have here is a pattern of Republican friends being invited into these deals. We have a pattern of Republican friends protecting one another."

Of course, there are the dodos out there, like letter to the editor writer Patrick Garofalo of Farmington, who thinks that Tim Commers is an "honest and decent man" despite having been sued for dishonesty in his representation of his telemarketing business and being forced to resign his position in the Pawlenty administration.

More and more, it looks like being a Reuplican politician is equivalent to being a crook. And that's why I am no longer a Republican. Long gone are the honest, hard-working Republicans, such as Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater.