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So many hands in the cookie jar

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On this one Ralph, let’s say this topic is something we can both agree upon and offer our own political opinions.

Sometimes it is good to express ourselves on similar viewpoints.

You and I both know the political shenanigans that have been going on in Arkansas over the past couple of years, especially when it comes to corrupt politicians and cheating bureaucrats caught doing underhanded things like taking kickbacks on government contracts.

I guess what galls me the most is an arrogant politician, State Rep. Mickey Gates, R-Hot Springs, who was caught not paying his state income taxes for several years and having the complete audacity to tell his fellow politicians in Little Rock and his constituents that he had absolutely no plans on stepping down after pleading no contest to the tax evasion charges.

The audacity of this guy, to turn his nose up to calls from the governor, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and others within his very own Republican Party that he should pack his bags and resign.

Heck Ralph, Gates has been pressured to step down ever since he was arrested in June 2018 and he has flatly refused. What gets me is that not only did he not step down after his arrest he also refused to drop out of his re-election campaign. The joke in all this is that voters re-elected him so what the heck does that mean?

Gates is of the flimsy opinion that his plea of no contest is not a finding of guilt although he was sentenced to six years of probation and an agreement to pay $74,789 in back taxes, interest and penalties.

Let me also point out that the amount this tax evader agreed to pay is significantly less than the $259.841 that investigators said Gates owed in a 2018 charging document.

Gates is going around saying this plea of no contest is not a verdict of anything even though he was given a sentence of probation and ordered to pay almost $75,000.

I found it also interesting that when he was asked if he had never broken the law even though he failed to pay taxes just like we all have to do he refused to comment.

Just how stupid does this arrogant politician think the people of Arkansas are, Ralph? What ruffles my feathers is how the voters within his district could vote to reelect him when they know he failed to pay state taxes for several years.

I simply don’t understand how people like this can get by with such criminal behavior and think they didn’t do anything wrong when they knew very well what they were up to no good.

And you wonder why I am so cynical when time after time we hear about these sleazy politicians we elect get away with the things they do, especially those holier- than-though career opportunists we have in Washington.

And you know something Ralph, the Republicans have turned out to be as bad as the Democrats when it comes to the good of this country.

If this Gates character refuses to resign I would think that that members of the state Legislature come together and vote by a two-thirds majority to expel him.

Listen Ralph, even our attorney general said Gates has admitted to not paying his state taxes and because of that he betrayed the public trust, which we could both agree on.

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