September 6, 2005

Ethic Update: Did Ethics Panel Go Easy on Cooper?

While much of my focus here the last few days has been on an element of the Hurricane Katrina story, there has been other news. NewsChannel5's Phil Williams had an excellent report a few days ago showing how the state Senate's ethics committee didn't apply the same standards to investigating state Sen. Jerry Cooper as it did former state Sen. John Ford, despite both being involved in ethically questionable situations in which they used their powerful position to enrich themselves. Was the committee's crackdown on Ford "more the exception than the rule," as Williams says? Looks that way. So, how do you like having an "unindicted co-conspirator" in what the feds say was a criminal conspiracy sitting in the state Senate?

Also related: Today's Tennessean has a story looking at the criticism Lt. Gov. John Wilder is getting for showing up at a secret meeting of an ethics subcommittee that was looking at the Cooper deal. Wilder's bank loaned the money for the allegedly fraudulent land deal.

Here's a link to background on the Cooper story.