Facts and evidence

The governor has stirred up his hornet’s nest and they are all over the comment section, stinging people whenever they can for simply looking at the facts from a fair and balanced perspective. I reiterate that when the JGO first started, I predicted that the real test of the Legislature to place a check on the governor would depend on the Senate and now my prediction has come to fruition. If you were a juror of the JGO and watched all the evidence presented on the governor’s activities, you would be hard pressed not to convict him, especially when there is no evidence to support a “not guilty” verdict. Hopefully the senators are not stupid.

The governor clearly faced a fair and balanced process with the JGO and the governor had plenty of opportunities to balance the process and offer a defense but he chose not to. In fact, the governor put up a fight, even going to court in an attempt to avoid testifying and putting on a defense on his behalf after claiming he had nothing to hide and he even promised to explain everything. It is clear the governor was being disrespectful to a legal process he swore to uphold in our Constitution because it was being conducted by a Democrat-controlled House but now that the process moves to the Republican-controlled Senate, he is pleading to be invited so he can put his spin on the evidence, like he did on the radio.

It seems the governor thinks he can repeat our thwarted history and even talk his way out of this with the help of the Republican-controlled Senate, which is a movie we already saw with Republican governor Fitial whom they refused to impeach. I beg the Senate: Do you really want to repeat the same old ugly history of the Republican Party failing to hold their governor accountable? If the Republican-controlled Senate hasn’t learned their lesson taught to us by our own history of failing to hold the governor accountable, then we the people will just have to “re-teach” them come November.

The investigation by the JGO is not about party or politics but about breaking the law and for the governor to try and turn the JGO Investigation into a political football was the only power play he could run. But he has created a genuine division among our people that runs deep and I can assure the governor it won’t turn out good for him in the end, as he faces the Senate, the feds, and voters. The governor is behaving more and more like Trump with his defiance and even his illegal obstruction of the JGO investigation. The governor is fighting dirty and so are his emissaries who continue to defend and promote him.

Everyone with common sense can see that the governor is trying to set the Senate up to clear him as if we the people are suckers. But there is a saying that applies to this governor: “You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time” and we nor the Senate should be fooled by this governor!

Ambrose M. Bennett
Kagman, Saipan