Brendan Johnson

Marion M. Rounds and more conflicts of interest. GET OUT!

l3wis December 9, 2008 3Comments

 

RCJ  ;prints a story about

A brother-in-law to Gov. Mike Rounds is working as a consultant for Powertech Uranium Corp., the Canadian business that is exploring for uranium near Edgemont.

Randy Brich of Pierre, who is married to the governor’s sister, Michele, is working in media relations on contract for Powertech. Brich also is part of the public-relations team for the corporation’s Dewey Burdock project in the Edgemont area.

Of course Pitty Pat Powers is trying to make a connection to this nepotism to the US Attorney appointment that is in the works for Brendan Johnson.

If Senator Johnson’s son – while very likely qualified – is named as the U.S. Attorney, no matter how they try to game the system to avoid it, it is impossible to avoid the appearance of improprety. Unless we now have adopted the monarchy that our forefathers eschewed so long ago, and endorse the naked building of political dynasties. Because that’s the only way this can be justified.

Otherwise, the naming of Brendan Johnson as U.S. Attorney in the same state his father holds the position of U.S. Senator is improper. No matter how much Senator Johnson’s son wants the job, no matter how much he might be qualified, the honorable thing to do is to take a pass until his dad is no longer U.S. Senator.

Period.

Sorry PP, stretching it again. Tapping someone to be a US Attorney (a person who has the creds to do the job, BTW) from the same party our President and Senior Senator are from (ohh, big surprise) and having a brother-in-law representing an energy company that wants to mine hazardous materials in our state is quite different. Especially when you have a governor that 1) has mentioned building a Nuclear plant in SD publicly and 2) bases every decision he makes on how it can benefit him, his family or his campaign contributors.

Last I checked, the job of a US Attorney is far different then the job of a marketing person working for a private company that seeks our natural resources. One works for us, the other works for themself.

You figure it out.