Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bennett Resigned Today! - Finally

As reported online from the PD Openers today - Bye Bye, Bob
he will be gone as of May 1, though he remains suspended from the CCBOE.
Secretary of State Brunner exchanged dropping her complaint against him for misfeasance and malfeasance while in office, for his resignation and his dropping his lawsuit against her.

That means that of course, will be no hearing next Monday.
It also means that
• she will be appointing the rest of the board very soon, so they can get started
• and a new Director and Deputy can be hired.
• that there will be a new board to have the mandated meetings for May 8's election
• and that they all will remain under the Brunner's Administrative Oversight until they are up and running on their own.

Is Bennett's resignation, rather than everyone being dragged through a hearing, a good thing?
Of course.

But Brunner dropped the complaint "without a finding of fault."
I'm sure that in many ways just to be able to move on, she needed to do that just to finally end the mess, as Bennett continues his ridiculous, baseless war cries of partisan motivation.

Also, had the due process hearing continued, the best result we could have gotten from it anyhow was Bennett's same "being gone". No criminal or civil indictments could have ensued.

But take a good look through this blog, and you'll find that Brunner's charges of mal- and misfeasance were hardly baseless. Anyone who's watched Bob Bennett for a few months understands that this "no fault" dropping of the complaint hardly equates to Bennett's innocence.

We cannot all get lost in "rah-rahing", and giving "the new" a chance, by not bringing up the old.
Now is the time to rout out the real sources of the long-impacted corruption at the Cuyahoga Board of Elections, identify it and show consequences to those sources.
Now is the time that Prosecutor Mason's investigation and possible indictments of the '06 and '04 elections MUST proceed- for the sakes of all of us in Cuyahoga, in Ohio, and the nation - who have been made unwitting and often unknowing victims to Bennett's using our money for his own political benefit; for running the management and operations of the Cuyahoga board into the ground; for flouting abuse of Ohio's open meeting and open records laws; for arrogantly bullying citizens asking questions and attacking anyone he perceived to possibly negatively impact his power; and mostly for replacing our very citizens' elections processes and even our "election results" with cover-up stories and shows of his board's "glory". Such follow-through is needed, even for the sakes of the two BOE employees now facing prison as they continued to cover for their superiors' actions.

Now is the time for Bennett, Vu and Dillingham NOT to walk away unscathed and forgiven - and some while still being paid more.

Now is the time to REALLY start anew, by identifying the sources of the corruption, and showing that we will not stand for it anymore.

Instead of more highly undeserved tens of millions to Diebold and friends, to aid ability to sway our elections from the inside, and even to track our voting identities and records, THAT investigation with indictments would finally be a good use of citizens' money - for citizens.
Justice would finally be done and possibly some deserved voter "confidence" in the process could begin.

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