You know what’s really in short supply in Oklahoma?
Or, what’s really in short supply when it comes to the two stooges, governor Kevin Stitt and state superintendent Ryan Walters?
Metaphors.
In a previous column, heading into the 2022 election, I dubbed them “The empty suits,” and, not to brag, they’ve made a prophet of me ever since.
The latest example being the indictment-free, yet still stinging incompetence-heavy finding of a multi-county grand jury convened by the attorney general’s office into misspent federal GEER funds, as reported by The Oklahoman’s Nolan Clay Tuesday afternoon.
As Clay reported, “Grand jurors did not issue any indictments, saying they found insufficient evidence to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, a crime was committed.”
Nevertheless, the grand jury heaped blame upon Stitt and Walters, as Clay quoted in his story.
“We find the grossly negligent handling of federal grant money and utter lack of internal controls and oversight over the grant-funded initiatives to be irresponsible, disappointing, and indefensible.
“What’s more, the waste and misspending of millions of dollars in emergency aid was easily preventable. This mismanagement prevented the most vulnerable Oklahomans from getting help they desperately needed during a global pandemic. Citizens deserve more from their government.”
Stitt, because he has a relationship with the truth only slightly better than Donald Trump (and Walters), had this to say in response, also charted by Clay in a story hitting the world Wednesday afternoon.
“The AG has weaponized a grand jury to sign off on a press statement his office prepared,” the governor said. “Ultimately, this was an inappropriate and unlawful use of a grand jury to pursue a headline in the attorney general’s campaign for governor.”
Such a baby.
Yeah, attorney general Gentner Drummond weaponized the grand jury … by introducing these crazy subversive things called “facts” and “credible testimony” in adherence with the “rule of law,” all terms with which Stitt, Walters and much of the Republican party in this state and elsewhere have no use for, or haven’t you noticed?
So there’s that.
Still, the saga of Walters both trying to put Oklahoma taxpayer money into the pockets of Lee Greenwood and Donald Trump — when it comes to songs with “America” or “American” in the title, I was always a Neil Diamond and Green Day guy — and put Bibles in every public school classroom in the state continues. And, wouldn’t you know it, an executive order put forth by Stitt way back in 2019 may stand in Walters’ way, even if nobody in the executive branch wants to say so now.
More on that later.
Thus, from “empty suits,” today we dub them, “the gang that can’t shoot straight,” leaving all of us with a problem.
Bound to do outrageously unplanned, corrupt and unhinged stuff in the future, what are we to call Stitt and Walters then and, if you hadn’t noticed, I burned up “two stooges” at the top of this thing.*
*Just so we’re clear with the stooges thing, Stitt’s clearly Moe and Walters only wishes he were Larry or Curly, because he’s Shemp.
I digress.
About the Bibles?
It appears the state will not be purchasing the $60 Greenwood/Trump Bibles Walters insisted upon originally, until it became known they were being made in China for $3.
It seems a state agency called the office of management and enterprise services (OMES), designed to bridge problems just like this one, intervened and got the department of education, aka Walters, to relax its previously precise parameters.
Yet, the larger issue is not what they cost, nor how they might be procured.
The larger issue is if it’s legal to begin with.
On Oct. 8, state rep Mark McBride, from Moore, and a Republican just like all the other players in this melodrama, but who now lives to throw sand in Walters’ gears, sent a letter to Drummond asking for an opinion on whether funds allocated by the legislature for one purpose may instead be used for another, because, as everybody knows, the education department has been allocated no money to purchase Bibles, it just has a lot of extra dough lying around because it’s crazy how much you can save when all your employees quit.
Drummond has expressed discomfort with the education department purchasing Bibles.
“I want to commend OMES for taking a most cost effective approach to this,” he said in a story reported by The Oklahoman’s M. Scott Carter, “but I’m still not sure this is what tax dollars should be spent on when Bibles can be donated or there are free apps on your phone that could be used.”
Not to mention, an executive order Stitt signed all the way back in April of 2019, in the name of grandstanding on matters of fiscal responsibility, may also bar the purchase of tens of thousands of Bibles.
In that executive order, Stitt decreed any non-emergency purchase by any executive branch agency greater than $25,000 must be cabinet secretary approved.
To date, Stitt, nor Nellie Sanders, his education secretary, have uttered a public word about Bible purchases.
Got it?
Though Walters wants badly to yet again prove his Christian Nationalist bonafides, he just can’t seem to move the legal mountains in his way, one of the biggest unwittingly put there by the man — Stitt — responsible for him having any kind of public life to begin with.
And Thursday, as this piece was being proofed and edited before posting, yet another mountain moved in Walters’ way, when more than 30 Oklahomans, “representing parents, children, public school teachers and faith leaders, filed a lawsuit Thursday asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court,” to kill Walters’ Bible plans.
Read all about it in this story from The Oklahoman’s Murray Evans.
You almost feel sorry for the guy, because how else can he prove to the masses he’s as crazy as they are?
Then there’s me, all out of metaphors.
Good job, Clay.
Please keep the heat on these fools. It’s so extremely frustrating to live in this state full of cultists’ trump wannabes. Stitt is CORRUPT, full stop! Walters is…well, yeah.