Helen Jones-Kelley quit the Strickland Administration yesterday over the “Joe the Plumber” scandal. She still did not apologize or admit that she did anything remotely wrong.She will be joined in unemployment by two of her lieutenants who participated in the snooping.
According to the Associated Press, Jones-Kelley issued a statement, but did not respond to interview requests.
"This decision comes after a time of pause, in which I realize that I continue to be used as a political postscript, providing a distraction from urgent state priorities," she said in her statement.
That’s a remarkable sentence. It explains why it took her so long to respond (she took a “time of pause.”) It paints her as a victim, not Joe the Plumber. (She’s being “used.”) This issue is not one of citizen’s privacy and her abuse of power – it’s merely a “political postscript.” (That is, her favored candidate, President-elect Obama triumphed, so get over it, already.) And, her foremost concern is “urgent state priorities.”
Does anyone think that highly crafted statement was produced by Jones-Kelley, whose native language is bureaucratese?
The two lieutenants involved in the scandal are also leaving. Fred Williams will resign effective Jan 31, and Doug Thompson’s position is being “revoked” according to an agency spokesperson.
The departures were all announced on the same day. Make no mistake: these were resignations only in the sense that Marie Antoinette committed suicide. It would have been nice if the Governor could have engineered an apology as part of the package from at least one of them. But he soon will have another chance to go on the record and side with the people of his state instead of his political cronies.
Substitute House Bill 648, which makes unauthorized access of government databases a first-degree misdemeanor, was approved by the Senate yesterday and goes to the House for concurrence. Gov. Strickland should sign the bill.
8 comments:
Its nice to see the right thing happen even if the timing was wrong and the admissions were corrupted.
Mr. Yost:
I am fast becoming a fan of your blog !
I agree. While this should have been done right away and with a higher degree of class, it really IS time to put this to bed.
What rankles me is the need to moisten the finger and put it up to the breeze before taking action.
Where is political courage and an acknowledgment of the absolute need to avoid even the appearance of impropriety?
I agree that an apology would have been the righteous response. However, overall, this “departure” at least screams GUILTY of CORRUPTION and I doubt the general public can be swayed from thinking otherwise. The Yost Post does it again:-)
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Dave,
I find it fascinating that the same types who blanche at the thought of wiretapping the phone calls of known terrorists, find no fault or embarrassment in snooping on a private citizen, a law-abiding taxpayer who caused the president-elect to embarrass himself on national TV. Shame on them. Nicely written.
So can we expect expeditious resignations from the office of the Delaware County prosecutor for snooping erroneously into the affairs of a private citizen?
Craig, I hesitated to post your comment because it implies that somone in my office has examined a someone's private information for political purposes. If that ever happened, it would be cause for dismissal.
It has not.
I decided to post your comment, with my response, because you had the courage to include your name -- an act of courage and responsibility I appreciate.
Great blog it is about time some of the office holders who can write put things like this in writing. Keeping current is the best thing. Maybe you can teach the ORC somethings about blogs.
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