I Love Cynics!

Alaska State Senator Ralph Seekins, showing a glorious contempt for the Constitution, has called for legislation to impose a fine for people who disclose information about ethics complaints against legislators or their staff.

Apparently forgetting about the First Amendment, Seekins would like to impose a fine of up to $5,000 for anyone who violated the proposed law. This is down from $10,000 and jail time Seekins originally proposed. This reduction led to this wonderful quote in the above linked AP news story:

“You’ve got to get used to me,” Seekins said. “I’m a used car salesman. I start high and work my way down.”

Let me take a moment to slip into stereotypes and giggle at a former used car salesman trying to hide ethics violations from the public.

Seekins claims that this move is to prevent “innocent people from being tried in the press.” Is the press never supposed to mention allegations of crimes? Should I not know who is being tried for rape or murder, either?

Seekins is merely trying to make it more difficult for allegations of ethics violations to come to light. This law would do nothing but prevent people from having their voices heard. We have whistleblower laws for a reason.

One job of the media is to be a watchdog over government. To adequately perform this job, they must rely on people within the government for information. By stopping the free flow of information, we lose the transparency our government was founded on. Our founding fathers intended that the closed door policies of our former government be thrown out. By holding government accountable for its actions, we can avoid tyranny.

Ralph Seekins should go back to what he does best; selling used cars.