Worlds Collide….
Nothing lights up our tip line like Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart. Some of the tips cannot be substantiated, others seem outlandish, even for this commissioner’s office. A recent one says they themselves may have to contact the authorities to alert them of the rampant alleged fraud that is going on in her office, to which I say, great, please do so, for if the corruption is so rampant, and if you have evidence of it, then what are you waiting for.
This is not to say that we aren’t keeping an eye on KWS. We have covered the allegations against the on the Insurance Commissioner going all the way back to May of 2009.
So it was with interest that I saw that an ethics complaint had been filed against her. But then I find out who filed it.
Christian Hudson, a Lewes businessman and member of the Sussex County Campaign for Liberty chapter. At first glance, he appears to be a Teabagger, on second, and more correct glance, he is a Ron Paul – Rand Paul Libertarian.
My first instinct is that this complaint will not be taken seriously due to who is complaining. And then I read Mr. Hudson’s reasoning:
“Nobody is backing me, this is just being filed as a private citizen. There’s no petition to sign, no website/Facebook/Twitter/etc, no infrastructure for support at all. I’m doing this because I feel something has to be done to stop this culture of corruption in Dover. Thomas Paine said “Those who expect to reap the blessings of Liberty, must undergo the fatigues of supporting Liberty.” Our politicians are just completely out of control and drunk with power, so if nobody else is going to stand up and fight the corruption I guess it’s up to the individual citizens and that means me.
And he goes on like that.
I was hoping something new had come to light. But if the complaint is just a cover sheet with CRI’s past posts on the Insurance Commissioner, which is what CRI says on their blog, how likely is it that this will lead anywhere? Indeed, one has to wonder why an ethics complaint was not filed by someone inspired by the CRI back earlier this year when CRI published their investigative report. Or by someone associated with the CRI itself. Lee Williams? Charlie Copeland?
So I plead with our anonymous tipsters, if you know something and have evidence of it, file an ethics complaint, for the love of God. There are whistle blower laws to protect you. It will have more force and effect coming from inside the Insurance Commissioner’s office supported by new evidence that it will coming from a Teabagger / Ron Paul Libertarian regarding stale allegations.
Wow, that complaint is whacked.
It should also be noted that Mr. Hudson (or perhaps it was his son) was a blogger at Delaware Politics at some point in the past. Also, the famous picture that I took of Jason330 on the day after election day in 2008 was in front of the Hudson family business. It featured an election day message of “Socialism is at the gates”.
These guys are teabaggy.
You should post that picture. It kind of straddles the line between fine art and photo-journalism.
I was witness to that scene!
“A Soldier Falls in Spain” has nothing on that.
Hudson and his family are multi-millionaires, so he does have an “infrastructure” (his money) to support this “complaint.” And the family is still crying out about socialism, etc. Kind of sad when you think about it.
Particularly sad when you realize that he makes his money off trailer-park rents, and has fought long and hard to keep the law from reining in his rent increases.
Just took another look at that picture, Jason. That seems so long ago, like 30 pounds and several non-grey hairs ago. Ironic thing is, speaking of Socialism, he, Geek, and I all got lunch afterward and I ended up paying for all of us, and I’m the poor one of the three! Bastids!!!
Nah, not really, but it made for a good story. Oh, that’s about the lunch part. The 30 pounds and grey hair is all true.
LG – That is indeed the same Christian Hudson who blogged at DP. He’s a nutjob, who’s probably going to run for office someday. Personally, I’d expect a challenge against Sussex Councilwoman Joan Deaver, D-Lewes, in two years.
If Hudson is politically motivated, then only for the free publicity. He has nothing to gain by this otherwise. I don’t doubt any of what’s been said about the insurance commissioner. Nor do I doubt that someone is going after her at this very time. This can’t have gone unnoticed. If she and that office were clean, no one would have said a word. Unfortunately, she’s well protected and these things always take a long time even if she weren’t. One word: McDowell. That he’s the one behind her says enough to me.
I do wish you guys wouldn’t go on auto pilot every time a non-liberal does something you don’t like. Don’t discredit and attack the source rather than the message.
Here’s a clearer version of that photo:
http://delawareliberal.net//wp-content/uploads/2008/11/socialism.jpg
Also, this little tidbit was reported in the Examiner, which is the dead tree version of FAUX News.
Keep your government hands off my socialized medicine! Just don’t forget to send me my social security check and make sure my son’s Pell Grant is paid on time.
Did CRI try to infiltrate the IC office and fail?
I got a call over a month ago from one of Sussex’s former hard-hitting Delaware Talk intertube reporters. This person is now working…for the state. But s/he wanted me to try to help them get a job in the IC office…”to help KWS with her image problem”…through a PR postition that was being offered.
This person wrote scathing posts about KWS during the 2008 campaign so I tactfully expressed my doubts that Elliott’s memory was that poor that they’d let the wolf into the hen house, so to speak. The person said that even though the CRI had contacted him/her about a job, s/he really, really wanted in with the IC for all the right reasons. So I dutifully passed on the request to KWS that soandso was interested in the posted job.
It turns out that the IC office runs all jobs through OMB and the choices are winnowed by a sub-committee within IC for a recommendation that the IC herself finally signs off on.
What other little tricks does the CRI have up its sleeves? (This is not to say that an Ethics request is out of line, it is just too interesting to watch the process of the DE GOP smear machiner trying to stay ‘behind the scenes” in this tiny state)
Nancy, you’re definitely losing what little is left of your brains if you think anyone is going to believe this bullshit story. That’s what happens when you keep attaching yourself to losers. This story is just another attempt to whitewash the IC like you have all along. If she weren’t such an idiot, hadn’t lied about her lack of experience and education and were less concerned with political payback and abusing her office for personal gain, she wouldn’t have an image problem in the first place. Amazing that the state ends up paying a salary to someone whose job it is to clean her up. Doesn’t anyone have a problem with that? This has to be the most expensive four years for the DOI in Delaware history. And you’re trying to blame CRI. Looks like you’ve been hanging around the IC too long. She’s not going to give you a job because you’re not one of the people she owes being in office to, so give it up already.
Actually, M. Nony, this story is not a white wash of KWS. This story is a plea for credible people with evidence of wrongdoing to come forward and file an ethics complaint, for I believe KWS is either corrupt or incompetent. So if I was trying to whitewash this story, why would I make that plea?
Indeed, I am a little pissed at CRI right now because it would appear that, after all their investigations, they are not serious about holding KWS accountable. If they were, they would find someone much more credible to file an ethics compaint than Hudson.
DD – I meant Nancy’s story, not yours. Yours makes perfect sense. I was just wondering what the hell Nancy was smoking when she put in her comment. Let’s hope she gets off that stuff before it completely fries her little brain.
Question for you: Why is hiring someone at the IC’s office such a gigantic production with the OMB when the IC can just hand out multi-million dollar consultant contracts, without the OMB turning her down because she didn’t find it necessary to put the contracts out for bid or get prior approval?
Gotcha.
Coooollll…. time travel.
Without a DeLorean, even! Damn, you’re good.
DD: A lot of people feel about the IC the way you do. Most who know her say she’s corrupt AND incompetent. Jacobson told DOI employees never to talk to outsiders or get fired (aren’t they all unionized?). Others with evidence got late night threatening phone calls from anonymous callers. Bizarre but not that hard to believe. That would explain no one coming out in the open with it so far.
She didn’t have any money at all before she was elected and now she has too much of it to lose to give up without a big fight. As do her enabling cronies who don’t want to end up in prison any more than she does.
Coooollll…. time travel.
Holy Marty McFly! You went back and modified my memory! Things that I think were there aren’t! Damn it! That’s what I get for going outside for about an hour, I missed what happened. Good move, tho.
Sunshine and fresh air = evil.
Glowing computer screens and electrons = good.
Indeed, indeed.
heh, the day CRI goes after DelDOT’s 100 million annual BFF consultancy contracts is the day I will have some respect for their efforts. Where is the REAL money going in Delaware?
Stories about the scamming of the Green Stimulus under Matt Denn’s purview seems to have gone to deaf ears over at the insititute. I will guess that KWS is the weakest link and therefore the easiest target.
DelDOT’s appointed and bureaucratic facilitation of the cozy relationships between elected and business in our state is continually ignored? Because Carolann is going to appease those on both sides of the aisle up and down the state?
The corruption of DelDOT and land developers is ongoing in Markell’s administration. As we speak, DelDOT lifer, Ralph Reeb’s, hand is on the tiller as the 120 Million Federal Garvee Bond sets sail in service to DelDOT Bayberry Beltway 301 land acquisition. (RSmitty can add in here with more deets).
This is not to excuse any fealty KWS might have shown to insurance insiders along the way. But rather to point to the ridiculous notion that her consultant’s arrangements don’t absolutely PALE in comparison to what is going on now under this executive in DelDOT, DDOE and DNREC.
By the way, my friend from the old Talk Show days just called to affirm that the CRI didn’t put him/her up to the job search at the IC. The OMB evidently never even responded to the application submission and that was why I never heard the follow up to that story.
🙂
“Stories about the scamming of the Green Stimulus under Matt Denn’s purview seems to have gone to deaf ears over at the insititute”
Are you sure? Isn’t that what the TNJ story the other day was about? CRI has precisely one reporter. They can’t check out everything. I have a hard time believing CRI would be disinterested in pinning incompetence to the Democrats’ presumtive 2016 gubernatorial nominee.
…hand is on the tiller as the 120 Million Federal Garvee Bond…
Oh, good Lord, don’t get me going, not right now, anyway. I’ve got way too much to do to go into that freaking boondoggle of debt that will last probably the rest of my lifetime for one freaking highway that’s done nothing but pit communities against each other. Not to mention, probably end up with hiring out-of-state contractors, which makes an already bad thing even worse.
Then again, I can go dig up my convulsive outflow of tweets from back in late winter about this. I was on a massive roll that night!
“Stories about the scamming of the Green Stimulus under Matt Denn’s purview seems to have gone to deaf ears over at the insititute”
I meant to ask questions about this the other day and I forgot. My memory has certainly failed me, because I can’t link something together. Originally, Maconi was brought in to oversee stimulus funding and spending (or something like that), but then I saw the article where they put it on Denn. Did I miss (or forget) something in the middle here, or am I putting Maconi at the wrong spot in this stimuls-spending organization?
is Maconi still feeding at the state trough?
I have no idea. That’s why I posed the question.
I know he’s just a nutjob teabagger, but isn’t he basically doing exactly what we wanted here? I mean everyone wants KWS gone, she makes Dems look horrible, and it’s probably a Rethuglican year… if she gets taken down a peg, who cares if it’s because of a stupid teabagger?
“Stories about the scamming of the Green Stimulus under Matt Denn’s purview seems to have gone to deaf ears over at the insititute”
I meant to ask questions about this the other day and I forgot. My memory has certainly failed me, because I can’t link something together. Originally, Maconi was brought in to oversee stimulus funding and spending (or something like that), but then I saw the article where they put it on Denn. Did I miss (or forget) something in the middle here, or am I putting Maconi at the wrong spot in this stimuls-spending organization?
I asked Denn a few months ago if Merconi is still on the state payroll and he said no.
CRI has precisely one reporter.
*
you must not be paying attention
they have been hiring like mad.