By Josh Moon
Alabama Political Reporter
Gov. Robert Bentley should resign.
I think I speak for all of the State when I say that we’ve had enough of the unimaginable, unstoppable, unbelievable stupidity of it all.
And I’m not even talking about the “inappropriate relationship” our 73-year-old grandfatherly Governor had with his 44-year-old former staffer, Rebekah Mason.
Those are consenting adults and they can do whatever they like in the privacy of his office (so long as they get out of earshot of poor ol’ Wanda) or in the privacy of the Blount House.
But the handling of this thing from start to finish has exposed a level of incompetency from Bentley that I didn’t know was possible. Especially from an actual medical doctor.
From the skin-crawling recorded love calls – which the Governor was duped into making by his grandmotherly wife, Diane, who doesn’t seem like the super-smooth spy sort – to the newest allegations from his former security chief, Wendell Ray Lewis, in which Lewis explains that Diane Bentley learned of the affair because the governor of the State of Alabama couldn’t manage iMessage.
It’s just too much dumb.
Honestly, how can the good citizens of Alabama trust Bentley to protect our best interest and make rash, reasonable and intelligent decisions when the man can’t work an iPad?
Add that to the impossible absurdity of Bentley’s post-love tape press conference, at which he denied a “physical relationship” with Mason as tapes of him talking of touching her breasts were almost simultaneously playing in the background.
It’s so bad that I have more faith in Kay Ivey running the state from the back booth of Sinclair’s in Cloverdale.
However, having said all of that, I am in no way changing my opinion of this state’s voters or saying that Alabama doesn’t absolutely deserve Robert Bentley and all of his ickyness.
Because they absolutely do.
The voters of this state who voted for Bentley – TWICE! – should be forced to wear Bentley and Mason t-shirts whenever they leave the state. They should own this dumb affair that won’t die.
Because let’s be honest, it’s not like there weren’t signs of trouble going into this.
Example No. 1: Dr. Dr. Bentley.
That was Bentley’s official name for a brief period back during the election in 2010. When state election officials forced him to remove the “dr.” label from his campaign signage because it violated a rule against nicknames, Bentley had a stroke of genius (or just a stroke) and decided to get around the law and change his name.
To: Dr.
No, for real. His name was Dr. Dr. Robert Bentley.
And still, y’all voted for the man. Because … Obama.
There was Ron Sparks – a perfectly good and decent man, a man we all knew, a man who helped with agriculture and held meaningful positions within the government. A man who even shaved his mustache for you people.
But instead, y’all went with Dr. Dr. FeelemUp. For no other reason than he had an “R” beside his name.
And where did that conservative agenda get you?
In addition to Bentley’s shenanigans, ol’ 12-count, Mike Hubbard, is being fitted for an orange jumpsuit and the once-removed-from-the-bench Chief Justice, Roy Moore, is now a twice-removed-from-the-bench chief justice.
Outside of the outright scandals, it’s not like the state is running like a top, either. We trail the country in recovering from the 2008 economic collapse and somehow our unemployment rate ticked up last month.
We have some of the worst schools in the country – primarily because we don’t fund them properly – and our health care system in the state is collapsing.
Add to all of that the governor being under criminal investigation, with impeachment proceedings on pause, and a new embarrassing revelation each week.
Those of you who voted for this train wreck deserve every second of this embarrassment for being duped again by the pandering and meaningless promises.
But the rest of us don’t. We deserve Bentley’s resignation.
