Senator McEachin Responds to Governor McDonnell‘s appointment of Fred Malek

Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) today responded to Governor McDonnell’s remarks this morning on WTOP’s “Ask the Governor” show, where the Governor said he did not know the details of Fred Malek’s, chair of the Governor’s newly appointed commission on governmental reform, $100,000 SEC fine. The governor then further said that these things happen in business, that “people in business 20, 30, 40, 50 years often have regulatory violations,” without ever acknowledging that Mr. Malek and his firm actually paid a quarter of a million dollar fine.

Senator McEachin expressed his very serious concerns with the Governor’s seeming acceptance and indifference to unethical and illegal behavior that resulted in a substantial fine.

For Governor McDonnell to imply that this kind of behavior is acceptable and allowable, even normal, is exactly the very reason that Virginians and Americans are frustrated and fed up with government. This did not happen thirty or forty years ago, but happened in 2004, a few short years ago! To ever tolerate corruption and illegal activity is totally unacceptable. Virginians deserve better. We deserve to know that our governor will seek out the very best, most highly qualified and above ethical reproach individuals to serve in our government. This government belongs to Virginians and we need that the individuals participating in it be ethical and above board. For us to have any confidence in the workings of this commission and this administration, we need to know that the Governor will insist on the highest ethical standards and will not tolerate illegal behavior of any kind.

For Governor McDonnell to first say he was unaware of these details, and ignorant of a six figure fine, is absolutely stunning and, frankly, beyond belief. When any Virginian applies for a job, he is expected to fill out an application that asks about past activities. Is Governor McDonnell not even asking his appointees for the same minimal information? Instead, it seems we have yet another example of insider cronyism where the governor simply appoints his highly placed friends, perhaps in exchange for future endorsements or monetary support.

This is simply unacceptable. I would ask the governor again to replace Fred Malek. In no way, shape or form should an individual who was fined for his illegal behavior with another state's pension funds be involved, let alone in charge of, “reforming” Virginia state government. The governor needs to find someone to lead this commission who is above ethical reproach, who has not been fined by the SEC and who the governor has ensured is the best qualified person for the job.

McEachin to introduce legislation to restrict academic "witch-hunts"

Senator Donald McEachin is planning to introduce legislation that would bar academic "witch hunts" by the state's attorney general:

After indicating last week that it would comply with a subpoena sent by the AG, demanding documents relating to the work of former University of Virginia climate scientist Michael Mann, the university is now equivocating. "Our intention is to comply but we are looking at some options," a UVA spokeswoman told the Washington Post yesterday.

Also yesterday, Democratic legislator Donald McEachin said he planned to introduce a bill that would bar the state's AG from issuing subpoenas unless he has filed a lawsuit. McEachin said the bill was intended to ensure that the AG could not issue subpoenas without a judge having the ability to throw out the underlying case as frivolous.

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Other scientists -- including climate change skeptics -- have slammed Cuccinelli's probe as a "witch hunt." The Virginia ACLU and a national professor's group have urged UVA not to cooperate with the subpoena.

Read the entire article.

McEachin condemns Cuccinelli's "frivolous" investigation

Senator A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) today issued a statement condemning Attorney General Cuccinelli’s harassment of the University of Virginia scientist, Professor Mann.

This is not only ludicrous and frivolous, wasting more taxpayer dollars and trampling on academic freedom, but the Attorney General has deprived Mr. Mann of his constitutional rights. In this country, based on our Constitution, we have an adversarial system of justice that gives defendants certain rights. Those rights include the ability to ask the plaintiff for information, to file motions and, most importantly, to have a frivolous lawsuit quashed. However, because the Attorney General, who has sworn to uphold the Constitution and the Virginia Constitution, as he has frequently reminded us, has chosen to ignore and circumvent that system, Mr. Mann has lost those rights. If Attorney General Cuccinelli had filed this as a lawsuit and then issued subpoenas based on that lawsuit, Mr. Mann would be able to ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit and, in the small likelihood it was not dismissed as ludicrous, Professor Mann could then file his own motions and request certain information from the Attorney General. If he can go after Professor Mann, then no Virginian is safe from the oppressive reach of the Attorney General’s strong arm and the invasive powers of his office.

Don’t misunderstand, I think this is a terrible abrogation of academic freedom and I strongly believe that research is necessary for our civilization to move forward. Not all research is ‘correct’, but for a hypothesis to either become a theory or to be disproved there must be research. Copernicus and Galileo also once found themselves under this kind of attack, where the powers that be did not believe or felt threatened by their research. I cannot and will not speculate on why the Attorney General feels threatened or uncomfortable about Professor Mann’s work, but I will stress that research is important and valuable.

We must allow science to move forward, to cure disease, to unlock new sources of energy, to create safeguards against natural disasters. Just this spring we have seen the importance of research for the health and safety of our communities. Research allowed scientists to know the extent of the ash cloud and where it was spreading, preventing potentially fatal airline crashes. Research is helping, albeit too slowly, cap the leaking oil in the Gulf and, hopefully, continued research will show us how to better manage an oil spill to protect human, animal and plant life. Even better would be research that develops alternative energies so we don’t need to be drilling offshore, risking our coastal communities.

Next Session of the General Assembly, I will introduce legislation to protect all Virginians. Professor Mann is this week’s victim; we don’t know who next week’s or next month’s will be. My legislation will mandate that the Attorney General must go to court and file a lawsuit to subpoena any Virginian’s records. Then and only then will the justice system we believe in and the Constitutional rights of Virginians be protected from the heavy-hand of the Attorney General.