A million dollars for nothing, that was the end result of the suit and the settlement…what a waste of taxpayers money. And a misleading headline on the posting by Mr. Messenger, i.e., how can the ’state appointed attorneys say that there was a violation of the law’ when they themselves claim that it is ‘“impossible” to prove a “knowing and purposeful” violation of Sunshine Law’, in other words, they cannot prove there was any violation of the law. This entire fiasco was a witch hunt that resulted in nothing but an attempt to legally stain a publci official…it is shameful.

No, they proved there was a violation, just couldn’t prove that it was purposeful. Under your reasoning, it’s like saying if someone commits manslaughter instead of premediated murder, no one died. The governor’s office violated the law or they wouldn’t have settled. A settlement is not a dismissal, and hiding behind this ”we don’t want to spend taxpayer money” crap is not fooling anyone. Robinson’s statement makes the Gov look worse, not better, by so obviously mis-stating what the court did. If they weren’t doing anything wrong, they wouldn’t have changed the way they were doing things. I’m quite glad my tax dollars made the Gov’s office start doing the right thing. Thank goodness Blunt is almost gone, and Nixon, we expect you to follow the law too, so get it right from the beginning.

Gee thanks, your attempt at logic simply makes no sense…if they were guilty of anything, you can be sure the AG’s office would not have ’settled’ the case, they would have prosecuted. If they are not confident in their prosecution, they settle. Yes, it is not a dismissal, but nor is it a conviction; both sides agree to settle the case…did you get your law degree from a coimmunity college?

Where’s Sgt. Hulka when we need him. “Lighten up, Francis.”

Where did I say I have a law degree? Just flip your argument around–innocent people don’t settle, they go to trial, therefore the Gov must be guilty. Prosecutors settle all the time in order to get the conviction–and yes, settling counts as a conviction. How many murderers have “settled” so they can go to jail rather than the electric chair? They are still being found guilty of the crime and their criminal record shows it.

My God people where is the outrage? The P.D. and their Democrat allies are guilty of costing the state one million dollars for nothing. Did they find any E-Mails that proved pay to play as what was going on in Illinois?. Did they find any E-Mail that showed corruption was going on? Is anyone going to be indicted for criminal acts?. Or did they just get off by looking for dirty E-Mails?. This whole thing was just a political farce.

It’s amusing to watch big deficit spending Republicans complain about a $150K investigation when they spent $80 million examining stains on a blue dress.

Kenny, let’s review: It’s not the Sunshine Guideline or the Sunshine Suggestion or the Sunshine Promise, it’s the Sunshine LAW. Blunt broke it. He’s the Governor. That’s why governors and other public officials have lawyers, so that they will be advised if they are about to do something stupid which will get them sued, thereby costing the state money. Blunt chose to fire Eckersley instead of listening to his apparently wise counsel. And, predictably, he got sued. That is the outrage.

It is absolutely not true that innocent people don’t settle. It happens every day. That’s the injustice of our justice system - that even to prove yourself innocent - it takes a lot of money - that you may not have. A settlement says what was agreed to and any consequences.

The bottom line is that the “special” AG’s didn’t have enough evidence that the law had been broken which specifically says “knowing and purposeful” - end of story. If there had been a “knowing and purposeful” presence - there would have been fines and convictions.

It cracks me up to hear innocent people don’t settle. I used to work for a large business in St. Louis and they paid people off all the time instead of going to court. Why? It was cheaper. Sure they could have fought every battle in court and probably won most of them, but you have you realize how much money they would have payed those attorneys doing the fighting in court. It just wasn’t worth it.

I liken it an argument with my wife. She said I was supposed to pick up milk on the way home even though she never mentioned it in the morning. I just said, “I’m sorry, you are right, I forgot, I’m going to go get milk now.” I was much easier that way. I could have pushed it and proven my point as we didn’t even see each other in the morning cuz I’m out the door before she gets up, but it just isn’t worth it.

Garrison get your crayon colored deficit chart updated cuz Obama is gonna have a few trillion dollar yearly deficits if he follows through on any of his proposals.