{"id":726290,"date":"2019-10-21T10:17:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T16:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=726290"},"modified":"2019-11-01T08:54:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T14:54:29","slug":"nm-gop-leaders-dont-really-care-about-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2019\/10\/nm-gop-leaders-dont-really-care-about-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"NM GOP leaders don\u2019t really care about corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Steve
New Mexico GOP Chair Steve Pearce (Heath Haussamen\/NMPolitics.net)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COMMENTARY: <\/strong>Former N.M. Gov. Susana Martinez once complained<\/a> that her Democratic opponent Diane Denish and her predecessor Bill Richardson were perpetuating \u201ca corrupt system that rewards friends while stealing from taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, while he was running for governor last year, blasted<\/a> his Democratic opponent Michelle Lujan Grisham for the \u201ckind of corruption\u201d that \u201cholds New Mexico back\u2026 politicians rigging the system for their own gain while fleecing taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former state GOP Chairman and gubernatorial candidate Allen Weh once said<\/a> the state\u2019s chief executive \u201chas to be the role model for integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another former state GOP chairman, Harvey Yates, wrote an entire book<\/a> about Richardson corruption. Yates once said<\/a> the state needs a governor who has \u201cabsolute integrity, a willingness to do what is necessary to cleanse the state of political corruption and the fortitude to persevere until the job is done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republican leaders in New Mexico have consistently taken a verbal stand against corruption while Democrats ruled the state. They\u2019ve argued, correctly, that awarding government contracts in exchange for campaign donations and other favors, for example, is very, very bad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, how times have changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When President Donald Trump\u2019s administration announced last week that it was awarding the federal contract to host a meeting of world leaders next June to his own golf resort<\/a>, most Republicans were silent. Inconceivably, some were even supportive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when Trump\u2019s acting chief of staff admitted last week to a quid pro quo<\/a> \u2014 that the president withheld military aid to Ukraine in part to pressure that country to investigate Trump\u2019s political opponents \u2014 most Republicans remained silent then, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though Trump walked back the awarding of the G7 meeting contract to his own resort over the weekend, the fact remains that Republican leaders were largely silent in the face of this blatant corruption. Trump blamed criticism from<\/a> the \u201cDo Nothing Radical Left Democrats & their Partner, the Fake News Media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glad someone is standing up to Trump\u2019s shameless self-dealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s corruption is so severe that while it\u2019s true Richardson did bad things, his misdeeds aren\u2019t in the same universe: Trump is blatantly making domestic and foreign policy decisions based on how much he and his family can profit politically and financially. He\u2019s dealmaking with foreign interests in the way the Founding Fathers feared the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And each time he gets away with it he follows up by doing something worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awarding the G7 meeting contract to himself would have escalated a continuing pattern of directing government money to Trump properties. The Air Force<\/a> and Vice President Mike Pence<\/a> are among federal officials under Trump\u2019s thumb who\u2019ve spent public money at Trump hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter Shaub, the former director of the federal government\u2019s Office of Ethics and a frequent critic of Trump\u2019s immoral actions, had this to say about the G7 contract on Twitter<\/a> before Trump backed down: \u201cThe President of the United States participated in the award of a contract to himself. Are there Senators who find that acceptable? Are you prepared to say all future Presidents can award themselves contracts? Why do we even have an @OfficeGovEthics<\/a> if the Senate will allow this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with the certainty that this isn\u2019t the last self-profiting stunt Trump will pull, Republicans have a choice: They can do nothing, as they\u2019ve done while Trump has abused his position for personal gain time and again, inflicting death and destruction on the nation and world in the process, or they can make a stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s unfortunately little evidence that they plan to do the right thing. Trump has effectively weeded out most GOP members of Congress who expressed any public concern about his actions, leaving Sen. Mitt Romney standing alone<\/a> for the time being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With few exceptions, today\u2019s GOP leaders are welcoming corruption into our government with open arms and displaying an impressively awful exercise in mental gymnastics<\/a> to justify it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans are literally allowing Trump to use the resources of the federal government to enrich himself and his family instead of serving the good of the nation\u2019s citizens. They\u2019re allowing the very thing they have blasted Democrats in New Mexico for doing for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, the hypocrisy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t believe ever again that a Republican running for office in New Mexico gives a damn about corruption unless that person has a history of standing up to Trump\u2019s misuse of the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Trump\u2019s corruption won\u2019t only eat the Republican Party alive. It threatens to destroy this nation. Because all the stuff New Mexico Republicans used to say about the evils of graft are true. It diverts the focus of government away from the needs of the people and replaces that proper focus with an insular, criminal enterprise. This particular criminal enterprise is operating on a global scale and has the resources of the federal government \u2014 foreign aid, lucrative contracts and even nukes \u2014 at its disposal. It\u2019s focused on improperly influencing elections and making millions for the Trump family instead of making America great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not too late to change course, but it won\u2019t happen unless Republicans with integrity find courage that seems to be in short supply these days. Pearce, now the chair of the New Mexico GOP, is a Trump apologist<\/a> in a red MAGA cap<\/a>. Martinez has a platform to speak out with her appearances on Fox News<\/a>, but she\u2019s conveniently not blasting Trump with the ferocity she used to bring to her fight against Denish and her criticism of Richardson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine the reaction from Republicans years ago if Richardson\u2019s chief of staff had admitted to a quid pro quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integrity means standing up for what\u2019s right even when it\u2019s not politically beneficial. Democrats don\u2019t have the numbers to stop Trump, so at this moment in history the fate of our republic falls on Republicans. The world is watching. Our children need more Romneys and fewer Pearces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember all the complaining about Bill Richardson? Republican leaders were right then, but apparently only because it was politically convenient.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[112,106,3307,114,194,3306,208],"class_list":["post-726290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-bill-richardson","tag-diane-denish","tag-donald-trump","tag-public-corruption","tag-republican-party","tag-steve-pearce","tag-susana-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727594,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726290\/revisions\/727594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}