Ouch, that slap on the wrist really hurt!!

It's been a light week for posting, for which I apologize ... scheduling, blahblahblah ...

And it's been hard to think of something new to say about Team Dorkowski's week ... I mean, talk about shooting fish in a barrell ...

Gov. Dorkowski did make a shrewd move in appointing Bob Bundy to investigate the matter. As a former Dem. US attorney and prosecutor, he has a reputation as a straight shooter and the appearance of not being in bed with Team Dorkowski.

Indeed, this move is more shrewd than may be generally suspected. Bundy's mandate for investigation is limited, and he has no subpoena power. He'll simply be interviewing people who are not under oath and can only ask them a limited scope of questions. In the end, his report will be very narrow in scope and conclusions because of this. Bundy also undertook the Cynthia Cooper investigation a few years back, in which he cleared the former head of the DA's office of wrongdoing, despite the fact that she had twice been caught lying under oath, and that Judge Holland had remonstrated her for it in a published order. So he doesn't exactly conduct Ken Starr style inquisitions.

The most important thing, though, is that Alaska's public ethics laws are toothless. The likely result will be that the report will determine that there may have been a violation of the ethics laws, but since Renkes gave any possible earnings to charity, no harm, no foul.

I would hope to see a different outcome, but I can't imagine it will work out that way. Which is really unfortunate.

In a society that truly valued public ethics, Renkes' head would roll for such obviously improper behavior. I mean, really, folks - it just can't get any more clear than this. He was using his public office to actively promote the interests of a company that he had a personal financial stake in at the same time as he was actively trading stock in that company ... have we so lost our societal ethical compass that this sort of behavior can be acceptable?