Historic Misconduct

Comments (0) By Michael Lacey Thursday, Oct 26 1995

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But that is precisely the point.
There simply is no crime, felony or misdemeanor, no sin, mortal or venial, that the governor feels bound to acknowledge. Consequently, Fife Symington moves from the picayune strut to the larcenous cake walk without pangs of conscience.

He is history's great man, unencumbered by mortal statute.
At first, he only pays Alvarez's delinquent taxes. It is a grand gesture above the spirit of the law. But then he appoints this college dropout--whose love letter to the governor has been leaked to the press--to head up Arizona's international economic development operation, a $60,000-a-year position she is so underqualified to fulfill that she promptly blows several multimillion-dollar deals and is forced to resign.

In the beginning, his accountants help him skirt meddlesome campaign contribution statutes. The next thing you know, Coopers & Lybrand is awarded $4.6 million in state work as a result of bid rigging and influence peddling by the governor and his deputy chief of staff. Is anyone actually surprised that the crooked Project SLIM contracts correspond in time to Fife Symington's accounting bill being discounted out of existence?

I tried to contact Squire Jefferson to ask him what he thought about all of the events in this column, but he was unavailable for comment.

I assume he was out tending his tobacco plants.--Lacey