I am Sick and Tired of Senator Thurman Adams’ Lies

While Delaware news watchers await the House Ethics Committee’s verdict on their findings that Rep. John Atkins brought disrepute on the state House of Representatives by allegedly lying about some aspect of his traffic stop in Ocean City last fall, the President Pro Tem of the Delaware state Senate told two whoppers recently about the business of the state Senate itself. As far as I can tell, either lie has not evoked one word of editorial outrage from the News Journal or the talk show hosts at WDEL. It certainly has not preoccupied them. Yet his lies are far more insidious because they were apparently told to conceal from the public the inner workings of the state Senate and the voting records of the state senators themselves.

The first lie concerns the influence of lobbyists on the Democratic majority in the state Senate and how Thurman Adams happily sells the integrity of the legislative process every week for the cost of a plate of slick dumplings:

For years, Senate Democrats have had a Thursday get-together when the Legislature is meeting: a weekly chicken-and-dumplings lunch organized by Sen. President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr.

The lawmakers eat for free. That's because Adams finds a sponsor, usually a lobbyist, to pay.

Adams informs his colleagues, who hold a 13-8 majority, about the meal in a weekly memo sent out on his Senate letterhead.

In this year's first invitation, Adams wrote that the dumplings would be served at the Little Creek Inn, whose owner "promises that they will be slick and slippery." (link)

The obvious question about Adams’ “slick and slippery” fest is what do the lobbyists get for paying for a plate of dumplings...like an opportunity to talk about legislation they wanted passed?

The Bridgeville Democrat also insisted, contrary to reports by other attendees, that legislative business is not discussed.

"Never. Never. I don't ever remember any issue being discussed. It's just strictly some of the senators; we talk, and a lobbyist or two and that's all,'' Adams said. (link)

“Never. Never,” says the most powerful legislator in the General Assembly (and probably the state government itself). Yet his denial is “contrary to reports by other attendees.” Even the lobbyists can muster more honesty than the elected “public servant” Thurman Adams:

Cliff Hearn, a lobbyist for the insurance industry, said he attended a couple of dumpling feasts years ago and those in attendance discussed "everything from their golf game to bills being considered."

A. Richard Heffron, lobbyist for the state Chamber of Commerce, said he has sponsored lunches over the years where he discussed bills to cut the gross receipts tax and to reform the worker's compensation system, both of which passed. (link)

The second lie concerns his craven policy of hiding from the public how our state senators vote on various bills. While the House of Representatives, controlled by the Republicans, plans to provide the public streaming live video of its sessions, the slick and slippery Democrat Thurman Adams won’t even post on the legislative website how our state senators vote after the fact. And to justify his policy, he tells a bald face lie:

In a matter of weeks, the state House will begin streaming live audio of its regular sessions. The Senate, which doesn't even post its roll call votes on the Web, has no plans to follow suit.

"We haven't thought about it," said Senate President Pro Tem Thurman Adams Jr., D-Bridgeville. Adams did not rule out posting Senate votes on the Web -- "We'll be talking about these things," he said -- but he said votes typically are reported in newspapers the next day anyway. (link)

Can someone tell me which newspaper in Delaware records how every state senator voted on every piece of legislation and every resolution that makes it to the Senate floor. In the near thirty years I’ve lived in Delaware I’ve yet to read that newspaper.

Senator Thurman Adams lies to keep the public in the dark and to keep the doors of the General Assembly closed to the public. He despises democracy and open government because he doesn’t want the public to know about the shady deal making, the corrupting influence lobbyists have on legislation, the political threats made in the caucuses to senators who might dare to take a stand in the public interest and not in his interest. And Adams has no compunction about lying to keep his privileges and shameful ways of conducting the people’s business hidden. He’s a deceitful strutting egotist who thinks only of himself most of the time and every day he brings disrepute on the state Senate and the people of Delaware.

I wish the only lie slick and slippery Thurman Adams had to answer for was one about a traffic stop. I wish some brave state senator would haul his butt before an Ethics Committee and demand that he answer for his lies and his cozy affiliations with lobbyists. I wish Delaware’s media would harp ceaselessly on his bad and closed government policies and his lies designed to keep the public in the dark. If anyone in the state legislature deserves the utter contempt and anger of the public and the media, it’s slick and slippery Thurman Adams. If anyone deserves to be expelled from the General Assembly, it’s him.