Sunday, October 29, 2006

Another one, Sonny?

It's bad enough that Sonny Perdue is Georgia's first sitting governor to be found in violation of an ethics complaint. As troubling as it was to hear of his "Disneygate" land deal, it was even more so to find out that Sonny's reasoning for investing in land in Florida was a lie. He said that it was so that there wouldn't be a potential conflict of interest. Now we see that Sonny does dabble in Georgia real estate. And after campaigning on transparency in government in 2002, reportedly, Sonny didn't even disclose his purchase of land in Houston County.

Considering his "potential conflict of interest" excuse, we know that he is well aware of that possibility and about the looks of impropriety. Yet that didn't stop him from buying his land in Florida from a political appointee of his.

I'm not against Georgia governors making money. I'm not against them investing in property and securing their future. But Sonny Perdue shows us that there should be a law in Georgia requiring a governor to put his assets in a blind trust. Because he told us that ethics was important to him. And then he lied about his personal business dealings as governor.

We traded a decent man like Roy Barnes for this? Even Republicans should be disappointed.

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