Money for nothing

Here's one I missed. Did you know that Tina Kohoutek's "chief of staff" and former campaign manager, Andrea Cooper, was making $303,000 a year in the guv's office before she quit rather than answer to The First Lady? That's ridiculous enough, but it gets worse: Cooper will continue to pull down that amount at a make-work state job elsewhere in Salem through the end of November.

Nigel of the Weed had the story here, and contract here. They dropped it at 3:43 p.m. on a Friday, of course. There's a tendency to bury anything that makes the Dems look bad.

But the Cooper story may not be not quite as bad as that of the Portland public school p.r. chief who just got $90,000 for pretty much nothing other than to go away quietly. Mack the Flack was on the payroll just a little over a year, seven months of which was on paid leave. If I've got the math right, he made well north of $250,000 for about six months (or less) of actual work.

Somebody in government, please hire me. I promise to leave quietly and get my windfall promptly.