Tuesday, August 24, 2010

More on Corbett and Craigslist

Earlier I reported that while Pennsylvania Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate had joined several other AGs in a lawsuit challenging the legality of health care reform legislation he did not sign a letter that several state AGs sent to Craigslist asking the service to discontinue its adult services section.

In 2008 Corbett was one of 43 attorneys general in asking Craigslist to crackdown on illegal content. He was not one of the signers of this week's letter (see "State AGs: Craigslist should drop adult services," by Everton Bailey, Jr., philly.com 8/24). The letter states in part:

The joint letter acknowledged Craigslist faces the prospect of losing revenue if it were to remove the adult services section.

"No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist," the letter said.


He did join the state attorney's general this past April in claiming that the health care reform legislation was unconstitutional (see his rationale here). The list of states in the suit is provided in "Attorneys general in 14 states sue to block healthcare reform," by Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor 3/23/10)

It is interesting to look at the list of AGs in the health care reform suit and compare it to the list in the Craigslist letter. On health care all but one were Republicans. The Craigslist group is more diverse, 12 are Democrats and 5 are Republican. Four governors are on both lists, (Idaho, Michigan, South Carolina, and Texas), all are Republican. Corbett could have signed the letter -- there would surely not be any political fallout for doing so, but he didn't.

Again, I find his priorities questionable.

I would also note that Bob McCollum, Florida Attorney General, is another party to the lawsuit. This evening he lost the Republican primary for governor.

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