More Richie Farmer Dope
Trust in government is at an all-time low, and it is because of the Richie Farmers of the world.
The audit of the Department of Agriculture during his days in office is sickening.
Blogger and activist Mica Sims describes her effort to read through the findings:
I still haven't read the entire 187 page audit describing some of the countless wrongdoings of Richie Farmer as Kentucky's Commissioner of Agriculture, but I've read a significant portion of it - all that I could stomach - and I must say that the impact is actually much worse than the brief highlights presented in various news articles. When all of these abuses of power are read in consecutive order, there is a cumulative effect. The details paint a picture that makes it clear that there were not a few isolated lapses in judgment. There was a persistent pattern of entitlement and malfeasance. Farmer seemed to believe that he was special and was above the law, and the world should bend to provide anything he wants just because he's so awesome.
We are agreed. As we wrote in November,
It stinks whenever a public official puts themselves ahead of the taxpayer. It is disappointing that the media in Kentucky never seems interested in holding Democrats accountable for similar actions. Anyone with any commonsense would be able to advise Mr. Farmer that his actions are wrong, wrong and wrong.
Which is the most putrid part -- he clearly does not care that he is wrong. He clearly does not care that he embarrasses an entire slate of candidates, an entire political party.
He does not care that he is creating challenges for the new commissioner before he is even sworn in.
Richie Farmer clearly does not know right from wrong.
Mr. Farmer's lawyer sounds hopelessly optimistic when he says that the audit is politically motivated and that he would be "shocked, I would really be shocked" if a law enforcement agency were to find criminal charges included with the myriad ethics and personnel violations.
Picking on someone so completely devoid of moral fiber is easy, and we won't belabor it. We can only hope that this thorough investigation is the first of many government agencies.
