Blunt's Eckersley Scandal, Day Four

On the fourth day of the scandal over Matt Blunt's illegal firing of attorney Scott Eckersley for his objection to the governor's violation of the state open records law we learn that Eckersley --far from having been "out to get" Blunt-- simply wanted to move on from the entire affair, avoid having his good name slandered, and prevent the need for litigation.  

The Associated Press today writes about the manner in which the Blunt administration negotiated with Eckersley over potentially helping him move on to a job outside government with the Mitt Romney presidential campaign.  Eckersley openly talks in the story about his desire to resolve a bad situation, despite that situation having been entirely of the Governor's own making. 

But Team Blunt was far more interested in trying to make Eckersley pay a price for having pointed out the administration's Sunshine Law misdeeds.  Matt Blunt, Ed Martin and the Governor's inner circle had already embarked upon and completed their preparations for dealing with the issue by compiling a stack of circumstantial evidence which they planned to use to demonize Eckersley in the media.  That was the plan they would ultimately implement on October 26th by sending a box of putatively embarrassing documents about Eckersley, unsolicited, to members of the media.

It was at that moment that Ed Martin made good on the extortionate promise that he had made to Eckersley in the discussion the followed Eckersley's firing.  Martin had threatened Eckersley that if he piped up about the email lawbreaking in the Governor's office that he would defame Eckersley's good name and fabricate allegations of drug use and sexual inappropriateness.­

Given the brutality of the treatment that Martin had threatened him with, it is completely unsurprising that Eckersley would want to find a way to work with the Blunt team --despite what they had already done to him-- in order to find a quiet and peaceful resolution to the affair.  Unfortunately for everyone, the appetite of Ed Martin and Matt Blunt for retribution was just too great to quell.