phil bryant vs jim hood. go phil!

[zipzam]

State Auditor Phil Bryant says in a new report that $14,000,000 paid to Booneville attorneys Joey Langston and Tim Balducci should be put into the state budget.

It's part of a debate over how public money is spent on private attorneys who represent the state.

Bryant says legislators should make decisions about how public money is spent.

Langston and Balducci represented the state in a case to collect $100,000,000 in back taxes from telecom giant MCI.

Attorney General Jim Hood hired the two attorneys and says those fee's were negotiated separately from the may 2005 settlement case with MCI.

Hood says state law allows the Attorney General to hire private attorneys.

[zipzam]

"Hood says state law allows the Attorney General to hire private attorneys. "

nice spin by jimbo, it's NOT about jimbo hiring private atty's... it's about allowing the legislature having imput on WHO is hired and HOW MUCH is paid.


i fully support phil in this, it's common sense. the way the AG can operate right now, joey can donate 3 million to hood's campaign and hood return $14 million to langston... all "legally".

[King Rat]

But then of course Hood has to tow the line because the ethics committee has oversight of his actions. Oh, but since Hood's little brother Tommy Hood was appointed to HEAD that ethics committee I guess there is NO oversight.

But the idea that lawyers and politicians (expecially when the politicians are lawyers themselves) would shuffle money back and forth under the table flies against all logic. I mean, what more honest people could you find on this earth than lawyers and politicians?

[zipzam]

cpurdon said:

But then of course Hood has to tow the line because the ethics committee has oversight of his actions. Oh, but since Hood's little brother Tommy Hood was appointed to HEAD that ethics committee I guess there is NO oversight.

exactly...

i'm glad i'm not the only one that noticed how crazy that is.