Even Golf Can Be Corrupted By George Bush

Golf, like it or not, is one of America's pastime sports. Of course it came from Scotland, but so did baseball in a way. It has been played by many great Americans and tarnished by scandal as baseball has by the Black Sox controversy almost 90 years ago. It has also been played by a lot of blue blood bastards and George Bush and his dad H.W. are two to be counted among them. Thanks to the Bush family and their friends in the Department of Justice, another scandal has been added to the game.

From ABC News:

The Justice Department, in a decision by Flores, gave the money to the World Golf Foundation's First Tee program, even though Justice Department staffers had rated the program 47th on a list of 104 applicants. The allegations were first reported earlier this year by the trade journal Youth Today.

"I don't know why people insist on denigrating it, it's a sound program," Flores told ABC News.

Current and former Justice Department employees allege that Flores ignored the staff rankings in favor of programs that had political, social or religious connections to the Bush White House.

The honorary chairman of the First Tee program is former President George Bush. On a videotape presentation, the former President Bush praised the program for "serving others and building character and building values."

Golf may be a great game, but mixing politics into how youth programs get Federal dollars is called cronyism. Of course, that has been the mantra of the Bush Administration since they started wasting taxpayer dollars in January of 2001. In fact, nothing about George Bush has been about merit since the day he came out with the silver gold platinum spoon in his mouth as a babe.

Sheldon Silver Practices Cronyism? Never.

Did you hear the sarcasm dripping in that title? Or was it more of a roaring, giant waterfall sound? Silver has been the Assembly Leader since forever and in 'representing' Lower Manhattan/LES since the mid 1970s. After you have acquired enough power like Sheldon has, coupled with working in Albany, you know things can go wrong when it comes to good government. Well, he was caught in the act again this week.

From The NY Post:

Silver and Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith last month tapped Arthur Luxenberg as their appointment to the 13-mem- ber committee that recommends to the governor candidates for the Appellate Division, Court of Claims and State Supreme Court in the city's district.

Luxenberg is a co-founder of Weitz & Luxenberg, one of the state's largest trial-law firms. Silver has been "of counsel" at the firm since 2002.

He and the firm have repeatedly refused to reveal who his clients are or how much he is paid, although sources have said it could be in the seven figures.

Luxenberg told The Post he was a joint appointment of Silver and Smith and denied the fact that Silver's ties to the firm had anything do with his placement in the nonpaying post on the commission.

Oh of course not. How could we think such a thing of Silver? I'm sure they barely know each other in the office and that his name came up because he was highly recommended by some government watchdog organization like, oh, I don't know, maybe N.Y.P.I.R.G.?

"The speaker is entitled to pick someone who shares his judicial philosophy, but he should look outside a firm with which he is affiliated," said Russ Haven, of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

One lawyer with knowledge of the appointment noted that Luxenberg, whose firm's Web site boasts of "more million-dollar verdicts than most firms in the country," will now have a say in selecting appellate-court judges who will decide whether to uphold or lower such awards.

"It just doesn't look good," said the lawyer, who asked for anonymity.

No, it doesn't look good. Not at all. It looks like more of the same from Albany. Just another reason why voters from his district must take a look at Paul Newell in the primary this year. Paul is anything but about cronyism and shady deals, the exact opposite of what we must deal with in Sheldon Silver's stewardship of the Assembly.