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| This pops up on a google image search for "Diane Hammonds." This is not, as some would suggest, the Cherokee Nation's Attorney General. |
Who is this "Diane Hammonds?" Twice in the last two weeks, Baker has sent out statements demanding this woman take some action. The problem is, Diane Hammonds probably isn’t who Baker thinks she is.
A couple of days before the election, Baker, in a press release, “demanded Attorney General Diane Hammonds open an investigation of Chad Smith for secretly cutting a deal with Congressmen in DC.”
He also said that “Council members are concerned that the fact that Hammonds was hand appointed by Smith she may put loyalty ahead of duty.”
Then this past Saturday, Baker issued another statement, ostensibly about the Cherokee Nation winning the DC lawsuit, but most of his comments were directed at Smith and this “Hammonds” person. He wrote: “Smith's handpicked Attorney General Diane Hammonds must immediately open an investigation of Smith's actions as demanded by Tribal Councilors or resign. She is paid by the Cherokee people, not Chad Smith.”
This is where we respectfully point out that the Cherokee Nation’s Attorney General is named Diane Hammons. There is no ‘D’ in her last name. We all make the occasional typo, but in this case, Baker has used her name incorrectly three times in the past week and used it wrong every time.
Baker has voted to approve Hammons twice, once as general counsel in January of 2006 (Resolution 03-06) and again in July of that year in the new Constitutional position of Attorney General (69-06). He even called her on the phone in this July’s Rules committee to make her promise to resign if he got elected and he didn’t like what she was doing. Check out the video for yourself, about 90 minutes into the July Rules committee meeting.
Again, the spelling of her name is clearly not a typo. This is three times in a little more than a week that Baker has incorrectly spelled the name of a Cherokee Nation Cabinet Member, whose name he (should) see in print at least once a month on Rules Committee agendas. He talks in the Rules Committee about calling Hammons, but apparently her number is programmed into his cell phone as “Diane Hammonds.”
Considering Hammons reports monthly to the Rules Committee, and her name is on the agenda every month, and that Baker has been on the council for 8 straight years, it’s a little disconcerting that he doesn’t know the name of the Cherokee Nation’s Attorney General. Of course, there is another explanation: Baker doesn’t read his own news releases before they go out, and they are being written by someone who doesn’t know the name of the Cherokee Nation’s Attorney General. And, frankly, neither possibility is all that inspiring.
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| This pops up on a google image search for "Diane Hammons." This is the Cherokee Nation Attorney General. |
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