Ford Blows More Smoke Than Chimney Fire

Joins Merry Band of AGs to Protect DOE Handouts

Out here in the wild and woolly territory of Nevada — where a man is supposed to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow and not by the trembling of his pen — our very own Attorney General, Mr. Ford, has once again hitched his wagon to the fancy parade of spendthrifts known as the Coalition of 19 Attorneys General. Their latest spectacle? Filing suit against the Department of Education (DOE), like a posse of fortune hunters suing the sun for setting too soon.

Now, the Department of Education — never known for its towering wisdom — sent word down the line that states must bow and scrape before the administration’s new reading of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or else watch their federal coffers dry up faster than a waterhole in Death Valley. In plain speech, if the states don’t snip away at any notion of equal access to education the way Washington dictates, they can kiss their dollars goodbye.

Nevada, poor soul, stands to lose almost a billion dollars a year — most of it thrown into the noble causes of special education, low-income aid, non-native speaker programs, and heaven knows what else. One could feed every horse, cow, and politician from here to Reno on that much coin and still have silver left for the gambling tables.

And who stands on the front lines of this noble fight to keep the gravy train running? Why, none other than Mr. Ford — the man who has wasted more Nevada taxpayer dollars chasing lawsuits, ghost causes, and political pipe dreams than any politician who ever daydreamed about being Governor.

Ford proudly joins hands with his fellow letter writers from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin — a regular map of states where taxes grow faster than tumbleweeds in a storm. Mr. Ford, if given a choice between righting wrongs and riding the gravy train, would not only buy a first-class ticket but demand a private car and a brass band to announce his arrival.

Whether the lawsuit saves the day or sinks like a stone, one thing is as sure as sunrise–Ford will have spent more of Nevada’s hard-earned money making noise than he ever will saving it.