After the last presidential debate, during which John McCain invoked Joe the Plumber’s anti-socialism shot heard ‘round the world, several taxpayer-subsidized employees in Ohio immediately rifled through government databases in search of damning information. The Columbus Dispatch identified Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, as one of the dirt-diggers. She also happens to support Barack Obama and contributed the maximum amount to his presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, Jones-Kelley admitted that the records checks on Wurzelbacher that she approved were far more extensive than she first acknowledged. In addition to pawing through his child-support papers, the agency “also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes.”
Jones-Kelley argued that plumbing the plumber’s information was no big deal because the agency always checks up on citizens who come into public light. Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland quickly pooh-poohed the civil-liberties infringements and denied any nefarious political motives.
If that doesn’t send a chill up your spine, you don’t have a spine.
(My emphasis.)
The evisceration of Sarah Palin was to be expected. Although it has not been applied equally to Sen. Obama and Sen. Biden, Gov. Palin was a legitimate target of scrutiny.
What did Joe Wurzelbacher do to invite scrutiny? He asked the man who is running for President of his country a question which that man answered badly.
Put yourself in his shoes. Do you really want the weight of the state and the press to be used against you just for asking a question?
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