Michael Silence, noting that Tennessee Waltzer Chris Newton pled guilty, informs us:

After his plea, Newton said that he became “caught up in business as usual in Nashville.”

“It is time for us to acknowledge candidly that the legislative process has become saturated with money and special interests,” Newton said reading from a prepared statement.

Mr. Newton, if you have an ounce of self-respect and decency left (which at this point is questionable), name names.

As I’ve said before, if it took two agencies over two years to catch such a rather small amount of illegal political money, imagine what isn’t being caught. That was a lot of effort for such meager returns.

Update: Here’s Newton’s statement, which says in part:

After much prayer [Dear Lord, I broke the law? – Ed] and deliberation [Dear lawyer, I broke the law? – Ed], I have decided to enter a plea of guilty in the case against me arising out of the “Operation Tennessee Waltz” investigation. This has been an especially difficult decision for me. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be of service to the citizens of this State [And for yourself – Ed]. Being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives at the age of 23 was, in many ways, a dream come true.

During my time in Nashville, I was able to help accomplish a lot of good [for yourself, apparently – Ed], both for my constituents and for the people of this State generally. However, I also became caught up in business as usual in Nashville. It is time for us to acknowledge candidly that the legislative process has become saturated with money and special interests. While many in our legislature have the best interests of the people at heart, the people deserve representatives who are entirely free from the corruptive influence of money in politics. [If only such a place existed – Ed]

Posted in uncategorized on August 31st, 2005 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |