The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
Every year it seems like some public servant gets accused of political misconduct or misinformation.
Recently, a lot of attention has been given to the benefits allegedly received by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who is oftentimes referred to as “Uncle Thomas”, because of his strong support for the legal views of ultra-conservatives, nationalists, supremacists, and insurrectionists.
I’ve often written about the way that people in public office can vote any way they please about any legal case, legislation, or political proposal that they wish to consider. Members of the Supreme Court are the least scrutinized, least accused, and least questioned about misconduct than any other public servants, elected or appointed.
Supreme Court Justices can take luxury vacations, travel on luxury planes, enjoy fine and expensive meals, and drink the highest-priced liquors whenever they feel like it and all they have to say is that the providers of the trips, the food, and the alcohol were personal friends.
Well, what they aren’t allowed to get away with is selling property they own to people that have legal issues that may be considered by the Court.
There are rules against hiding those types of transactions. Real estate deals that involve Supreme Court Justices must be reported.
Uncle Thomas owned property in Savannah, Georgia that was purchased by megadonor, Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, a huge contributor to Republicans and the Republican Party.
At the time of this writing, Thomas never disclosed the transaction; and any money made for him and his family members.
In all probability, nothing, or not much, will happen to Uncle Thomas because the Supreme Court, and the Department of Justice, are both reluctant and hesitant to punish, condemn, sanction, or remove a Justice for any law or rule violations.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of other African American “public servants” that have been accused of misconduct while in office or while campaigning for office.
The list is long, but it includes former candidates for Governor, elected law enforcers, local commissioners and councilmen, and more.
I told Black elected officials time and time again, “You can’t do what the white elected officials do!”.
No matter what I told them, some insisted on asking lobbyists for money, for drugs, for sports tickets, for women, and for whatever.
There is no excuse for selling your constituents out for “rice and peas”, using your position for economic benefits, or using campaign dollars donated by your supporters to live a life of ghetto luxury.
Smart elected officials make political money when they leave office. They may get a job, they may get a contract, or they may get a stock tip or a sweetheart land deal but they never get caught breaking protocol or breaking political laws to generate chump change,
I say chump change because most Black elected officials are not rich, and they don’t make any of their Black voters and supporters wealthy.
The smart Black elected officials that are promised economic benefits for legislative votes and support might say, “You can’t pay me anything, but you can talk to this sister or that brother if you want some help.”
Former Miami City Commissioner Art Teele was an expert at that kind of political money management but most of our representatives have no plan or clue on how we can get some of the special interest money that flows through Congress, legislatures, and city halls like water.
I’m not mad at anyone that seeks public service positions in order to be a political hustler.
I am also not mad when they get caught committing political crimes and nee
