FWIW, O'Malley's 'Furnituregate' Fizzled

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from the WaPo:

O’Malley won’t face ethics inquiry over mansion furniture purchases

The Maryland State Ethics Commission will not launch an inquiry related to former governor Martin O’Malley’s purchase of furniture from the governor’s mansion in Annapolis, according to a statement Thursday night from the state Attorney General’s office.

The Sun reported that a lawyer for the state Department of General Services, which approved the purchases, had asked the ethics commission to weigh in on the “propriety” of the transactions.

In Thursday’s statement, the Attorney General’s office said it had been advised by the ethics commission that it “has no jurisdiction over the matter, and that no investigation was commenced or is underway. “

The Attorney General’s also office said that the sale of furniture to O’Malley was approved “under established procedures.” A similar, though smaller, transaction took place when O’Malley’s Republican predecessor, former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., left office in 2007.

The ethics commission has declined to comment on the matter, citing confidentiality rules that prevent it from revealing matters under consideration.

While the Department of General Services could still alter its policies affecting furniture sales to future departing governors, Thursday’s development suggests that O’Malley is not in any jeopardy.


read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/18/omalley-wont-face-ethics-inquiry-over-mansion-furniture-purchases/

related:

O’Malley furniture purchases from governor’s mansion draw scrutiny
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/31/omalley-furniture-purchases-from-governors-mansion-draw-scrutiny/

[djean111]

1. This is the only place I read anything about it.

Silly squall in a teapot.

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2. some 'concern' posted here over coverage in my state

...the republican machine in the guv office is churning out this garbage to cover for their incompetence.

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3. »

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4. kick

[Cheese Sandwich]

5. His real scandal was a policy of abusive policing that destroyed police-community relations in Bmore

Nobody cares about furniture

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7. brain dead logic

...for brain dead partisans. More than that, it's an outright lie. Community policing isn't influenced by a policy ended over a decade ago. Under O'Malley community policing was actually enhanced.

I know it's convenient for cut-and-paste warriors to cite that singular policy of arrests for petty crimes as the totality of his policing effort, but it's a false and misleading assessment of O'Malley's crime record and the policies of his administration's police dept. The people who actually live in those communities spoke loud and clear to their impressions of the man with their successive, overwhelming votes for Martin O'Malley through 5 successive terms; from City Council, to Mayor, to Governor.

They're much more concerned with the daily violence from shootings and other deadly crime which has exploded in Baltimore, than they are with a policy of arrests for loitering and other misdemeanors that you so densely present (and parrot) in these not-so-clever hit posts. Either present the total record of his crime fighting efforts, or be satisfied hawking this misleading, incomplete, false tripe you've been hammering since your appearance on this board.

Notice how little traction it's gotten? That's because intelligent people can see beyond the rhetoric and understand that it takes much more than arrests for petty offenses to bring the violent crime level down over 40% during his term as mayor. That's because intelligent people realize that the individuals involved over a decade ago aren't stuck in time and place and don't represent the community (or the administration of policy or policing in Baltimore today).

I must say, though, you've done a good deal to highlight the inanity of these complaints against O'Malley with these contradictory and illogical posts from other political partisans looking to slough off successive administration's failures in Baltimore onto the past, instead of standing to account for their own incompetence and malfeasance.

[Cheese Sandwich]

8. And of course you don't want to talk about O'Malley's record of abusive policing in Baltimore

So you decide to say someone is a braindead partisan. I guess you're calling me braindead.

No need to get personal dude.

Somebody criticizing a politician doesn't give you a license to personally insult other users of the site.

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9. Stop the cutting and pasting of issues in my state and communities

... which you apparently don't care enough about (beyond your politics) to present a full and accurate accounting. All of this feint concern from you for the people there, and not a word about the deadly violence which is claiming actual lives and degrading the way of life in Baltimore far beyond what the police dept. there did over a decade ago to confront and address the record killings and other violent crime. No one needs this from you, here or anywhere else.

You deserve 'insult' for the way you present this issue here, as if you know something about these communities that you haven't read in these hit pieces you've been cutting and pasting here. You know next to nothing about this issue. This is brain-dead logic from you for brain-dead partisans (mostly republicans) who have cynically demagouged this issue to death here in my state for their own petty political purposes.

Thousands of actual lives are being lost in Baltimore to violent crime and all you can do is hawk this misleading, incomplete, and false tripe? You deserve all of the scorn I can manage. I actually care about the lives in my community. You? It appears it's just petty politics inspiring your own brand of demagoguery.

It is personal to me. Deal with it.

[Cheese Sandwich]

10. Well it's kind of discouraging because I've never said anything negative toward another person on

this website. Yet I've whenever I post something about Martin O'Malley that you don't like, you automatically jump to the personal insults. I think before you've called me a spammer and a troll.

I'm not sure why you think it's ok to have a policy of mass arresting tens of thousands of black men, holding them for days in overcrowded filthy conditions, and then releasing them without charge, and that doesn't bother you at all.

And yet at the same time you get really bent out of shape and insult people personally for mentioning it.

Martin O'Malley isn't above criticism. And he isn't going to be the only candidate that escapes criticism in this forum.

You're making a lot of unwarranted assumptions about me assuming that I don't know anything or have any personal experience in the things I'm talking about. I've been on the receiving end of ugly policing so yes it's personal for me too. And yet somehow I manage to navigate the website without making personal insults toward other site members.

You say the complaints are "inane" but you know full well complaints came from several trusted sources and there are thousands of accounts of abusive policing during when O'Malley was Mayor.

[Cheese Sandwich]

12. Well O'Malley had highly abusive destructive police policies as Mayor

Deal with that.

Too many lives were wrecked and people deserve to know about what happened.

I'm troubled by the fact that you refuse to accept this concern as sincere and you say I'm pretending to care about the people who suffered under the abuse.

To me it seems like maybe you are the one who doesn't care at all about the people who suffered under O'Malley's terroristic policing.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. What a surprise

Of course, if he were to win the nomination, the GOP would keep talking about it. Fox would cover it continuously.

[Aerows]

13. If that is the biggest nitpick they have

against O'Malley, whoop-tee-do.

He's a good man and a great candidate. I'm a Sanders supporter, but I'd vote for O'Malley in a heartbeat if he won the nomination, and with much enthusiasm.

[elleng]

14. It IS, Aerows.

Thanks.