This is an opinion cartoon
Kay Ivey fired one up. And it blew up in her face.
The Alabama guvnah lit an exploding cigar when she fired Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis. Over what appears to be nothing but petty butt-hurt politics. At the expense of veterans.
Hell, she doesn’t even have the right to fire Davis. He was hired by the ADVA board. Ivey exercised a seldom used something called ‘supreme executive power’ to get Davis out of her sight. She went nuclear. On one of Alabama’s only highly respected public officials.
Related: Alabama’s homeless veterans: Stories from the heart
There are plenty of horrible, no-good, very bad state officials Gov. Ivey should be removing. Looking at you, Leigh Gwathney. The stick-in-the mud Chair of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles is another cartoon.
Related: Why did Kay Ivey fire Kent Davis?
Why is Ivey dismissing Retired US Navy Admiral Davis, arguably the one highly admired, impeccable by-the-book public official who is actually serving his constituents well? Like I said, sounds like petty politics. But it’s complicated.
My colleague Kyle Whitmire explains it as well as it can be explained right here:
Whitmire: The long stupid saga of Kay Ivey’s nuclear war
An excerpt from Whitmire’s column:
John Saxon is an employment lawyer, and now he’s Davis’ lawyer.
He’s threatening to sue the governor under the Alabama ethics law for retaliation.
“If we do file suit, I will look forward with great relish, to taking the Governor’s deposition and seeing how she responds when she is under oath and unscripted,” Saxon said on Tuesday, minutes after the governor’s office delivered the letter to Davis.
When I spoke to Saxon later that day, he said again he was looking forward to taking Ivey’s deposition and that he would invite as many folks as could fit in the room to watch it.
There are legal barriers the governor’s staff would likely throw in the way.
But I’ve known Saxon for years. I’ve seen him work in court. I’ve read other depositions he’s taken. And I’ll say this with confidence: If Saxon does get to depose Ivey, it will make Joe Biden’s debate performance look like Ken Jennings’ winning streak on Jeopardy.
Read all of Whitmire’s column here
Can’t wait for that reckoning.
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JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].
