The previous former thread by this name just met with an unfortunate accident. The short version is, I started the thread in the kitchen and finished it in the living room. I was in the kitchen, saw the half started thread and clicked delete, not realizing it would take the entire thread down since it was only one sentence.
Live and learn. It apparently is gone, never to come back.
Basically, it was the following, from the Richmond Times Dispatch:
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office says records that would document the time, resources and meetings involved in its lawsuit against federal health-care legislation either don’t exist or are classified as confidential “working papers” of the agency.
Stephen R. McCullough, senior appellate counsel for Cuccinelli, was responding to a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act filed by Democratic Party officials and several media outlets, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
On Tuesday, Cuccinelli had issued a news release saying the work of the suit was being done in-house and that costs would be minimal beyond the $350 fee to file the suit in U.S. District Court.
Democratic officials have been critical of Cuccinelli’s filing of the suit, which claims that the new health-care law is unconstitutional because it requires nearly every American to obtain health insurance or face a fine.
Democrats alleged that Cuccinelli, a conservative Republican, is trying to block reform and wasting money and resources of the office by filing a suit. They requested a list of attorneys both inside and outside the attorney general’s office and records of their hours and the money spent to produce the legal filing.
McCullough’s response to the request was “No such record exists.” Under FOIA, with certain exceptions, agencies are not obligated to create records if they don’t already exist.
Rule of Law is not something that can be cherry picked. Fill the FOIA request. If records aren’t complete, start keeping better records. The AG and his office is responsible to the people of Virginia for both time and money.
He is grand-standing and wasting the money of the people of Virginia while suing the United States of America. There is no way this venture will only cost us $350, even if he staff is working for free.
Readers will have to resubmit comments. I do not think the old ones can be recovered.
There, there is that civility we have been looking for. Its certainly not in this subject post. Good job Chuck!
State Sen. Charles J. Colgan Sr. is one of the Prince William area’s most famous Democrats, but he had lots of good things to say about a prominent Republican on Thursday.
Colgan, chairman of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, told a gathering of the region’s chambers of commerce that McDonnell was instrumental in helping budget negotiators reach consensus when they had to make $4 billion in cuts to state programs.
“He presented a very cooperative atmosphere,” Colgan told the crowd at the Montclair Country Club… He even visited the legislators’ office building in Richmond. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a governor in the General Assembly Building,” Colgan said.
No one was uncivil, PWCTP. Just because it might not be what you want to hear, doesn’t make it uncivil.
Chuck Colgan is always a gentleman.
How about that rule of law? How about filling that FOIA request? Should Ken just blow it off?
Job Bob and Cooch are performing as a classic “bad cop, good cop”
team. The Gov. can remain comfortably on the right while always
seeming the “sane reasonable one” in comparison.
Agree, Chuck Colgan is a true gentleman.
And the badder the AG gets, the more his fans adore him. Ugh.
A Democratic Party Operative’s FOIA to get at sunk in-house costs– now that’s Funny!Idiotic , partisan politics, geared to the media – but typical. Your are better and more seasoned than this Moon.
The number of hours personnel spend on a project is actually very important. If they are working on an extra project then they aren’t doing the job they were hired to do.
We had a hard time pressing this very point, on FOIA requests as a matter of fact. Some folks who had a bug you know where over the police department were continually doing FOIA requests, The time amounted to over a thousand hours, according to the chief. Did it cost more money? No, the employees were already there. But…and this is a big but, they weren’t doing their jobs because they were doing FOIA requests. So either work ran behind, people worked overtime, or something else didn’t get done. I doubt if it was Democrats this time. At least it wasn’t the Democrats who were bragging about doing it.
So it works both ways. The AG just needs to tell them how much as been spent and log the hours spent on the project. Its a simple request. Fill the FOIA request before it gets too burdonsome.
What bothers me is the AG’s cavalier attitude. When my state sues my country, I want all the t’s crossed and the i’s dotted.
And we are back to rule of law again. PWCTP must not think that FOIA laws count? Cherry picking?
I do not care how much this law suit costs. Despite previous bad judgement, Cuccinelli has turned me into a supporter with this law suit.
I do not think that there is any requirement to turn over working documents. That little clause is on page one of military training materials on FOIA.
I don’t care for my state suing my country. I think the little clause is probably open to debate. We shall see….