Many times when I think about what it means to be a conservative, I look back to the days when Ronald Reagan was President. Why do we so revere President Reagan as a conservative? A lot of it had to do with his ability to solve practical problems using his conservative principles. Using the ideals of the free market and a strong national defense, he took on the Soviet Union and won. Using the ideals of limited government and political accountability, he worked to cut wasteful programs from the budget. He used many different ideas to solve a wide array of problems.
If only Troy King were so creative with his ideas. It seems like whenever Troy King has a chance to actually solve a problem, he simply grandstands on the issue. Let's look at just one example, dealing with prisoner meals.
Back when I was in grade school, we had a day in class where we learned about really weird laws. You know, laws regulating things such as chewing gum on Sunday afternoons--things like that. well, Alabama has some pretty archaic laws. One allows county sheriffs to pocket extra money they get from prisoner meals. Obviously, public officials shouldn't be able to get rich off the public dole--this is a clear violation of ethics, and the AG had the chance to end it. Well, first, he issued an opinion allowing it to continue, and second, although Troy King does like a good press release, he never encouraged the legislature to close the loophole once he was aware of it. As a result, a major statewide scandal ensued. Early this year, Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett revealed he had pocketed over $212,000 from prisoner meals for his own personal funds, and Mobile County Sheriff Jack Tillman was convicted of crimes for a similar violation.
Why was Troy King mum on this issue? Perhaps it had to do with the fact that King was friends with Sheriff Tillman, attending a parade with him in Mobile and using his work in order to seize a prosecution from political rival Jon Tyson. Cronyism seems to define Troy King's world, and for whatever reason, it led to no solution to this issue. Instead, Alabama was again a laughingstock in the national media.
We need an Attorney General who sees problems and develops solutions to them. Troy King could have nixed this with an unfavorable opinion, but if he truly believed that this sort of behavior was within the bounds of the law, he could have publicly called for the legislature to close the loophole. Instead, he allowed the problem to persist until it ended with people in prison. If only we had a different AG who could act as Reagan did, and work to actually solve our state's problems.
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You have been sent an email demanding a retraction regarding your report that Jack Tillman went to prison. In fact Jack Tillman did not go to prison nor was he ever sentenced criminally for any such matters, or any others. Your statement was one of fact and not of opinion and should be removed and explained as a retraction. Mr. Tillman is no longer an elected official and is to be provided the highest level of accuracy extended to all private citizens. Regardless of your disdain for Troy King, you have no right to make false accusations against Jack Tillman or any other private citizen and to be honest it questions your accuracy about your reports on Troy King as well.
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