Remember what your parents, teachers and truant officer said: You are judged by the company you keep.
Too bad Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his attorneys general didn’t think more about that before signing on to multiple lawsuits against the federal government, led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Yes, that guy, the one who was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives on a lopsided 121-23 vote last week for 20 counts of bribery, abuse of public trust and other charges going back several years.
Donald Trump blamed “radical left Democrats” for Paxton’s impeachment but, as usual with the former president, he has his facts wrong. About two-thirds of Texas House Republicans voted to impeach the attorney general, sending the case to the Senate for trial.
The facts that matter to Alaska, which repeatedly aligned the past few years with the publicity-seeking Paxton, are the expensive political lawsuits. The nation’s largest state frequently joined forces with the second-largest state, which stirs up political rancor to match its Texas ego.
In December 2020, Dunleavy announced Alaska would join a Texas lawsuit attempting to overturn the results of the presidential election. Paxton led the litigation, claiming that Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin ran “illegal and unconstitutional elections.” Thankfully, Dunleavy later changed his mind about making Alaska a party to the lawsuit.
By the way, Paxton lost that case convincingly, just like he lost the impeachment vote last week.
In March 2021, Alaska’s attorney general signed on with more than a dozen other Republican attorneys general to a Texas antitrust lawsuit against Google.
In January 2022, Alaska’s attorney general couldn’t resist the partisan political temptation and signed on to a Paxton-led lawsuit against the Biden administration over the Central American Minors Refugee and Parole Program. Seems maybe Central America is closer to Alaska than the maps show.
In July 2022, more than 20 Republican attorneys general including Paxton and Alaska’s top legal official filed suit against the Biden administration over a Department of Agriculture school meal program that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Just this past January, Alaska’s attorney general put his name on a lawsuit over a U.S. Department of Labor rule that would allow 401(k) managers to direct their clients’ money to ESG (environmental and social governance) investments. Yup, Paxton was a leader on that lawsuit, too.
Certainly, states have the right to sue the federal government and the obligation when federal rules infringe on the rights of their citizens. That’s the job of an attorney general. But Paxton was a partisan litigation machine as he was awaiting trial on felony securities charges for allegedly duping investors in a tech startup. And, according to the articles of impeachment, while he was busy accepting bribes, misusing his office for political gain and to protect a political donor.
None of this was a secret; it was all public years before the impeachment. And yet Alaska and multiple other Republican attorneys general must have figured it was OK to overlook the growing list of unethical conduct to get their state’s name on political lawsuits against a president and his administration they never liked.
Paxton is suspended from office pending his trial. Might be a good idea for Alaska and other states to think harder being seen hanging out in court with unsavory characters.
Reader Comments(0)