Unleash The (Saturday) Hounds

There is a great deal going on right now, so let's review, shall we?

High Noon Nastiness:  The Friday High Noon Club that meets at a local gun range weekly was fired up as Randy Brogdon, his new boss Commissioner Doak and attorney arrived to what used to be friendly territory.  Not so much anymore.  Apparently, Brogdon and crew were chastised, and one person even told Brogdon that she would "never vote for him again."  Former State Senator Randy Brogdon was a very conservative candidate for governor in Oklahoma who had vowed to reduce the size and scope of government, but then took a $99k/year job with Insurance Commissioner Doak.  Reducing the size and scope of government by eliminating positions to perhaps pay for his big salary is what he meant...and now, the chickens have come home to roost.

Barresi Blasts:  You read about it here, the fight that took place with the Board of Education and State School Superintendent Janet Barresi and McCarville has put together quite the series on the issue.  And this is a story that will not go away anytime soon.  Read more here. 

Brad Henry To UCO?  Rumors abound that since Henry will be temporarily working with a law firm in Edmond, that he will soon be tapped to take over when Roger Webb bails out at the University of Central Oklahoma.  Henry will fit in well in Edmond, will be seen frequenting Cafe' 501 (where the beautiful people of Edmond congregate), Lottinville's (where former Treasurer Scott Meacham has been seen) and of course, the Edmond Arts Festivals.  Since the law offices are right across the street from Lottinville's, that will more than likely be his new hang-out while he awaits the decision from the Board of Regents he himself appointed.  Think this will be a tough interview?

Feed The Wallets:  Larry Jones, founder and former President of Feed the Children, has settled his wrongful termination lawsuit and FTC has also dropped all the counter-suits.  Looks like they've kissed and decided to go their own ways.  Now, the Attorney General is saying that there will be investigations into the embattled charity, but believes them to be headed in the right direction. 

More to come...

Doak: Saving Taxpayer Dollars

Okie Doakie

Reducing the size and scope of government.  Returning power to the taxpayers.  Following the Constitution...these were all issues championed by the Republicans in the tidal wave that took place back in November.  And Okie Doak is wasting no time saving some taxpayer dollars by laying off fraud unit personnel.

In a spectacular piece written by the Oklahoman, six investigators will be unemployed at the end of the month (any coincidence that Doak hired three former legislators is, well, coincidental) and will save taxpayers a bunch of money (emphasis, mine):

The six layoffs will save the department about $323,000 a year, Doak said in a news release.
Dan Ramsey, chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents of Oklahoma, said he had not heard of Doak's plan to stop investigating allegations of policyholders committing fraud against their insurance companies.

Wondering if the savings is a net savings or if that is factored prior to the hiring of three former legislators?

HVAC Guy Randy Brogdon

The Insurance Commission, however, had a quick and well-planned response that should immediately silence any critics:

Some insurance department investigators told The Oklahoman they believe they were laid off so Doak could use their salaries to hire friends in executive positions, including three former legislators who are being paid $99,000 each to serve as deputy commissioners in his administration. The investigators requested anonymity, saying they were afraid of retribution if their names appeared in the newspaper.

Assistant Insurance Commissioner Rick Farmer denied the allegation, saying Doak saved money elsewhere to pay the deputy commissioner salaries of former state Sen. Brogdon, R-Owasso; former state Rep. Mike Thompson, R-Oklahoma City; and former state Sen. Owen Laughlin, R-Woodward.

Ah, well.  There is our answer - nothing to see here, folks, move along.  Doak saved money elsewhere to pay the deputy commissioner salaries of Brogdon, Thompson and Laughlin.  No worries.  We believe you.  Sort of.  We even believe the following:

Doak started out with 124 agency employees and the number will be down to 108 once employees who have been terminated go off the payroll, Farmer said. Doak campaigned under a promise to reduce the size of state government and would like to eliminate a “handful” of additional employees once other positions are evaluated, Farmer said. Reductions so far should save the department about $503,000 a year in payroll costs, plus an additional 25 percent or so in benefit expenses, he said.

Wonder if District Attorney Prater is watching this develop...

Fire some employees so you can hire former legislators.  Makes sense to me.  And there is a savings to the taxpayers of Oklahoma because clearly, previous Insurance Commissioners rarely thought of saving taxpayer dollars or reducing staff size.  Neither did they hire former legislators who are real estate professionals or HVAC guys to be "Deputy Commissioners."  They are more than qualified and experienced to do the job and are already showing their abilities...regardless of what the Oklahoman thinks:

The department receives hundreds of insurance fraud complaints a month and only a small portion could be investigated — even with a staff of nine, an investigator said.

Deputy Commissioner Brogdon, an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, will oversee the reorganized anti-fraud division, Farmer said.

Brogdon ran a heating and air-conditioning business before becoming a state senator.  

Some investigators questioned Brogdon's ability to lead an effective fraud unit, saying it takes a while even for trained law enforcement investigators to learn how to work insurance cases.

I hope that you've picked up on some of my sarcasm because I have been laying it on pretty damned thick.  The True Believers in the Republican Party will support Doak in his quest to keep the unemployment rate low for former legislators and they will point to these layoffs as "saving taxpayer dollars."  The rest of us, however, will see it for what it is:  Cronyism.

And by the way, there is rumored to be some stories about the new Labor Commissioner and his political hires coming down the pike pretty soon as well.  That will be fun.

Weekend Musings Around The Cave

The week has been a wild one to be certain, and the hits keep coming - politically, at least.  So, let's review, shall we?

Olbermann Resigns:  On Friday, Keith Olbermann abruptly announced his departure from MSNBC's top-rated show.  Granted, MSNBC lagged far behind the big dog of cable news outlets, Fox News, but Olbermann was their star.  He did not say why he was leaving, MSNBC has simply said that they have agreed to discontinue his contract.  Conservatives hate Olbermann and are celebrating his departure.  I, for one, am not.  As the proverb goes, "iron sharpens iron" and while his political leanings where clearly left of center and his rhetoric often enraged, he was the most intelligent of the left-leaning commentators out there.  Conservatives need someone like Olbermann, we need a challenge once in a while.  Unfortunately, we often participate in media that "tickles our ears" and tells us what we want to hear - never really having our minds challenged.  Talk radio has generally become one big blob of talking points memo utterances and Republican platitudes.  Olbermann challenged the establishment, asked the hard questions and rubbed our noses in it when our Christological political figures failed to do what they promised.  Pretty sad, really.

Judge Smudge:  You're not going to get an argument from this little gray duck that the judicial system is a mess in Oklahoma - nor will you get an argument that political corruption and cronyism is rampant.  But I must admit that even this story shocked me.  A high profile judge has been getting paid fraudulently for children allegedly under her care.  It's like something from a Lifetime movie, but it's true.  This is the same judge who stepped down from the Ersland case after prosecutors accused her of misconduct.  Apparently, they had no idea just how much.  Read the Oklahoman story here.

Deafening Doak Silence:  Former State Senator Randy Brogdon issued a statement about his employment with the new Insurance Commissioner and it has apparently been so powerful as to silence all the critics and even the often conservative-critical Oklahoman.  Fortunately, Representative Richard Morissette is still paying attention and has authored legislation to clarify what many believe to be our founders' intentions - that legislators need a two-year cooling off period before taking a cushy state job...like Brogdon's $100k/year job and former House Representative Mike Thompson's $100k/year job.  Mind you, it's more money than either of these boys have probably made and legislators are frothing at the mouth for such taxpayer income.  Whether the bill goes anywhere or not is really up to us.  We'll keep track of all the "no" votes and maybe someone will show up in those Districts in a couple years and raise a little hell.  It does go to show us all that it really is about money, not political principle. 

At the end of the day, there are those of us to take a step back, look around and wonder whether or not the "system" as we know it can ever be repaired.  We make headway, then we lose ground.  Perhaps it is just the fight itself, the struggle internally and externally that keeps us going, striving and desiring more from our existence.  Politics is a good place to vent because it's "safe" in many ways.  We expect the political process to be flawed and our expectations are often fulfilled with little effort and it feels good to let loose on the political establishment and to be honest, the establishment makes it bloody easy, doesn't it?

Keep checking back...

McCarville Poll: Doak Deal Stinky

The radio legend, Mike McCarville, took a poll on his blog and sure enough, public sentiment is what reasonable people figured it to be:  John Doak's appointments of former legislators violates the spirit of the law.

He had a football in his ads.

From McCarville's site:

Do the appointments of four former legislators to state jobs violate the spirit of the "no hire for two years" law? (One falls outside the provision.)
No...they're not paid with tax dollars 27% 43
Yes, clearly 60% 96
Yes, but justifiable to use their experience 4% 6
The law should be changed to allow this if "fees" pay their salaries 9% 15
160 votes total

I have read and heard some of the most ludicrous arguments supporting newly elected and sworn in Commissioner Doak as well as the Governor's choice of Glenn Coffee as  Secretary of State.  Most of the apologetics revolve around the "spirit" of the law versus the "technicality" of the law.  The Attorney General's decision, justifying this type of cronyism came about to appease the legislature and career politicians.  The decision itself will probably be challenged and the hope is that the Supreme Court will eventually rule and side with the framers of the Oklahoma Constitution.

Let's be honest here:  Mike Thompson has a real estate background and campaigned about his experience in the same - but not insurance.  In addition, it was Randy Brogdon who said that the state of Oklahoma shouldn't receive federal dollars but ironically, the job he took with Doak is funded with federal dollars...and neither does he have experience in the insurance industry.

John Doak filed suit a year ago, stating that "fees" are really "taxes."  But yet, he has used the term "fees" to hire legislators within the two-year window.  You have to decide whether or not this is acceptable.  According to McCarville's poll, you do not.

We have to decide when enough is enough.  More and more people are getting very, very angry and in 2012, the tide will begin to change once again in the other direction if this type of behavior is tolerated.  And in 2014, if the GOP continues this downward spiral of parsing words, technicalities and misdirection, there will be a severe price to be paid.

Irony At The (New) Insurance Commission

Once again, the election cycle of 2010 accountability movement strides ever forward and now, we turn our eyes toward the Insurance Commission.  John Doak defeated incumbent Kim Holland in what some believed to be a surprise.  Holland had the support of some Republican conservatives and even had the legend of Oklahoma talk radio, Mike McCarville, voicing some of her radio spots for her.

But what is truly interesting about this election cycle is not only the election of John Doak, but the rumors that are swirling about some of his potential appointments. 

Sources close to the methane gas filled dome inform your friendly Gorilla that John Doak will be appointing former Representative and congressional candidate Mike Thompson to the post of Assistant Commissioner & Legislative Liaison.  Thompson campaigned as a "business man" who was an arch conservative, a man who wanted smaller government.  If this is true, his continued government payroll is a shocker.

But not quite as shocking as this one...

The same sources from the Oklahoma Capitol have informed me that none other that the epitome of Constitutional Conservatism Randy Brogdon will be appointed as Head of Consumer Affairs and Fraud.  If this is true, there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth within the ranks of the Tea Party.  Former Senator Randy Brogdon campaigned hard on the issue of smaller, more Constitutional government and frankly, this bureaucratic position will fly in the face of such rhetoric.  If you recall, Senator Brogdon shocked his staff and volunteers by endorsing then candidate Mary Fallin for governor without talking to those who championed his causes for so long. 

If these rumors are true, the irony is so thick you need a chainsaw to cut through it.