Riddle me this one, Joker…  (Ok, I’m psyched about the upcoming Batman movie, sorry, but its appropriate here.)

How did Carrie Webster KNOW she had a conflict of interest before she claimed she didn’t have a conflict of interest?

What am I talking about?  Ok, let’s start at the end before we go back to the beginning.

House Judiciary Chair Carrie Webster, swore to high heaven when she led the push to change election laws (months before the election) that she didn’t have a conflict of interest.

Nevermind that Carrie’s husband pulls down a cool $90,000+ working for Attorney General Darrell McGraw. 

Riiiight, the very McGraw who the election law change was tailored to help in the upcoming November election.

The conflict of Carrie’s husband working for Darrell is chump change compared to Carrie’s pockets getting lined by Darrell handing her law firm a multi-million dollar payday through a ’special’ assistant AG gig.

Despite the fact that everyone else could see the huge, multi-million dollar conflict of interest, Carrie swore on a Quaran or Bible or a copy of Marx’s Communist Manifesto that there was no conflict.

OK, so here’s the Joker’s riddle.

Why did Carrie Webster recuse herself from the Energy Star Sales Tax Holiday during session?  According to both Democratic and Republican members of the Legislature (unless their memory is clouded), Carrie recused herself, asking the Speaker to allow her not to vote on it because of a specific, personal interest) and gave a vague explanation why.

Ok. Let me step back again and I promise I’ll get you there.

The Visa settlement that Carrie’s firm is going to get rich from was used to fund the Sales Tax Holiday the Legislature passed. 

So, Carrie stands up when the Sales Tax holiday comes up for a vote and asks the Speaker to allow her not to vote on the legislation.  (Legislators will often recuse themselves when a change in law is going to benefit them personally.)

Carrie asked the Speaker to recuse her from the vote.  Now, normally legislators give a pretty detailed explanation of WHY they are recusing themselves.  But, on this occasion, Carrie simply gave a cryptic ‘its something I spoke with the Speaker about’ when she asked not to vote on the Sales Tax Holiday.

Both Democrats and Republicans alike thought it was odd for Carrie to recuse herself from a sales tax holiday.  I’m sure they thought how in the world is Carrie going to personally benefit from a Sales Tax holiday?

Well, now we know. 

But, there’s another problem in Carrie’s recusal.

Supposedly at the point that bill passed, NO ONE KNEW HOW THE SALES TAX HOLIDAY WAS GOING TO BE FUNDED!!!!

So, not only was Carrie recusing herself from something that she supposedly didn’t have a conflict of interest over, she was recusing herself from a bill that supposedly no one knew how it was going to be funded.

Holy Joker!

So, Carrie recused herself from personally benefitting from the Visa settlement before they even knew the settlement was going to be used for the Sales Tax Holiday and she recused herself from a conflict of interest that within weeks she would claim wasn’t a conflict.

Holy smokes.

So, Carrie confirmed she had a conflict months before she charged the flag up the hill to change the law to help Darrell get re-elected.

Hysterical.

Poor Carrie, she was so confused in getting the bill together to keep her husband raking in 90,000 in taxpayer loot, and line her own pockets with a multi-million sweetheart deal from Darrell, she had forgotten she already claimed a conflict a few months ago.

And she claimed it on a bill that she wasn’t supposed to know was being funded by a Darrell settlement in which her law firm was lined up to make millions.

Goodness gracious, maybe we should give Carrie break.  With this many massive, lucrative conflicts of interest its hard to keep track.