The buck should stop with the Governor

As it said on a small sign on Harry Truman’s desk when he was president, “The Buck Stops Here.” This means that no matter what his administration was doing, ultimately Truman was responsible for the actions of those below him.

The Colorado political atmosphere was rocked when Governor Bill Ritter announced he wasn’t seeking re-election in 2010. A few candidates have emerged to replace Ritter (a Democrat), among them former craft beer tycoon and Democrat John Hickenlooper. He’s definitely my choice this year. But this post isn’t about politics, it’s about honesty.

A story broke recently that Republican Gubenatorial candidate Scott McInnis plagiarized some documents from twenty years ago for his articles entitled (idiotically, I might add) “Musings on Water”. I might also add, that McInnis was paid $300,000 for these articles through a Hasan Family Foundation fellowship. From the DenverPost.com story:

Spokesman Sean Duffy said Rolly Fischer, a Glenwood Springs engineer who worked at the Colorado River Water Conservation District handled the portions that used Hobbs’ work without attribution.

Hobbs declined comment when contacted by a reporter in Glenwood Springs this afternoon.

Dr. Malik Hasan and his wife Seeme Hasan have both said that should the allegations of plagiarism prove true, the would expect McInnis to return the money.

“The Hasan Family Foundation takes the issue of plagiarism extremely seriously. At no time was it brought to our attention that Mr. McInnis used information not cited or unethically used work that was not his own,” Seeme Hasan said in a release.

McInnis’ response was that someone else was responsible for the plagiarized content.

Unfortunately for McInnis, his name is clearly on these articles, making it his responsibility. This person wants to run for Governor and has put his name on documents without doing things like checking his references? Doesn’t exactly seem like he’s into things like paying attention to detail, claiming responsibility for things with your name on it, or fessing up when you’re fucking up.

I’m not saying this because he’s a Republican, I’m saying this because we can’t have people in Government who are untruthful about essays on water. Not that these musings are a big deal, but you have to wonder what else this career politician will be not-so-truthful about. We need politicians who are honest, ethical and willing to take responsibility for their actions, not just people looking to get re-elected.

Scott McInnis should take responsibility for not checking his references on these articles. He got paid what amounts to an ass-load of money for this, you’d think he could fork some out to hire editors.