Damaged goods? (1) Bookman writes: DOT chief's stumble compromises her credibility; (2) Shipp recalls that "Dirt shows up more on a white hat."

Jay Bookman of the AJC writes that:

Gena Abraham was lucky to hold onto her job as head of the state Department of Transportation.

Undeservedly lucky, perhaps.

Today, she remains DOT commissioner not because she acted ethically or appropriately —- she did not —- but because for the moment, the governor and other powerful people in state government have too much invested in her to allow her to fail.

Furthermore, while the official line is that the state Board of Transportation has resolved this scandal with its 8-3 vote to reprimand Abraham, that's wishful thinking. Abraham was brought in to reform the DOT, a job that would challenge almost anyone. And while her hiring was controversial, Gov. Sonny Perdue and others argued correctly that only a person with a strong reputation and impeccable leadership credentials would be able to demand change on the scale required to bring the DOT into the 21st century.

For Abraham, that stature has now been greatly, if not fatally, compromised, with repercussions that have yet to play out.

Thanks to some artful stage-managing, the initial announcement

[T]hat Abraham and Evans had played by the rules, with Evans stepping down voluntarily as soon as the two realized where their relationship was headed —- has not held up over time. It is now pretty clear that the relationship had become romantic and serious well before it became public, and that Evans and Abraham disclosed it only when events forced them to do so.

In a memo sent to DOT employees just a few weeks earlier -- when her relationship with Evans had already gone beyond the professional -- Abraham had stressed "the importance of establishing and maintaining the highest possible standard of professional behavior and ethics in our workplace."

Those who failed to meet those standards, she warned, would be subject to "the full extent of the department's disciplinary actions, including termination. ..."

It's pretty clear that under the tough line Abraham drew for her employees, the price of engaging in an undisclosed romantic relationship with your boss or subordinate would be dismissal. The fact that she herself has survived that kind of mistake will make it considerably harder to demand change in others.

Bill Shipp writes:

As former state Attorney General Mike Bowers used to say, "Dirt shows up more on a white hat."

Gov. Sonny Perdue and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle came out guns blazing in defense of Abraham, both offering a vote of confidence in her ability to lead the troubled department. Perdue noted that Abraham has upset various DOT constituencies, including legislators and local elected officials, since taking office last year. The governor essentially blamed political enemies of Abraham (and himself) for the predicament in which Abraham finds herself.

That ought to be the end of it, except that Abraham decided to lay down the law to her subordinates - in writing - just before news of her own possible indiscretion broke. She warned that sexual dalliances could lead to serious punishment, even firing. An accusatory memorandum on March 31 stresses that Commissioner Abraham will not abide violations of employee conduct rules. She has even pledged to remove politics - I can't wait - from the transportation department, though she and Evans were recently seen together at a Republican event.

The fact that Perdue has made Abraham the embodiment of his claim that he is attempting to clean up DOT, and her no-tolerance line for misconduct, may mean trouble for Ms. Gena. Those actions amount to an engraved invitation to view her own personal conduct under a public microscope. For her sake (and the governor's), the timeline she and Evans are claiming about their relationship had better be the ironclad truth.

Nothing gets a press corps moving faster than the chance to show hypocrisy by people who hold themselves out as entitled to judge the morality of others.

As Bowers found out a decade ago when he mounted a campaign for governor, it is difficult for someone who publicly polices the conduct of others to survive getting caught engaging in misconduct. Bowers built a sterling reputation as a reform-minded attorney general and champion of morality. He even gained national fame for pushing tough enforcement of Georgia's sexual morality laws. His chance to become governor blew up when he had to admit a long-running extramarital affair.

The Bowers tale should serve as a warning to Abraham and Perdue. If she gets caught having misled the public about her relationship with Evans, she's through, and Sonny takes a big hit.

And even The New York Times has a story on the topic:

Ms. Abraham had said on Friday that she would resign. But she backed away from that position after Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle raced to the department’s offices and called her into a meeting in a stairwell there, with a guard posted outside the door.

The revelations about Ms. Abraham and Mr. Evans surfaced just three weeks after she sent a memorandum to all department employees saying she would not tolerate misconduct or violations of department policy.

“The sheer number of offenses that we are discovering is staggering and embarrassing to the department,” she wrote in the memorandum, which was dated March 31, and she added that she would not hesitate to fire employees for unethical or unlawful behavior.

Ms. Abraham later admitted that when she sent the memorandum she was already romantically involved with Mr. Evans.