The Investigation Into Joe The Plumber
Written by Rick
Remember the day Joe The Plumber entered the stage? Remember how just a few days later there were a number of inquiries into Joe’s background? How they were going to do an investigation to find out whether the inquiries were legit or not?
According to the Columbia Dispatch, Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.
The basis of that claim? According to the Columbia Dispatch: ”Democrat Helen Jones-Kelly, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, confirmed today that she OK’d the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher following the Oct. 15 presidential debate.
She said there were no political reasons for the check on the sudden presidential campaign fixture though the Support Enforcement Tracking System.
Amid questions from the media and others about “Joe the Plumber,” Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments”
A Democrat, and both supporter and donater to Obama’s campaign started receiving questions from the media about Samuel Joe Wurlzebacher, simply because he asked Barack Obama a question and she decided to check and see if there was a child support case and if so, whether he was delinquent.
“Those records are supposed to be checked only when some probable cause exists to do so. What was Jones-Kelley’s probable cause? She claims that sudden public notoriety is enough to generate an investigation of someone’s status. I can’t wait to hear what the ACLU makes of that explanation”. ( Ohio official OK’d records search on Joe the Plumber )
In The Case Against “Joe The Plumber” , I took this issue up. I reported then that according to this same newspaper, in addition to inquiries after the debate, shortly before the debate Joe’s BMV records had been looked up three times. The paper reported later that those inquiries had come from Ohio’s child support agency, which apparently is Helen Jones-Kelly’s office.
So here’s the question. What does checking Joe’s BMV records have to do with finding out if he has an open child support case and if he’s delinquent, and why three inquiries to BMV just before the debate? What did the amount of taxes that Joe owed have to do with it? What did his plumbing license have to do with it? Not to mention the newspaper clearly says the information they obtained from their inquiry was not legal to be released to the public, yet it clearly was.
It looks to me like not only was Joe the victim of an attack on his character just because he embarrassed Obama, but it involved some prominent Ohio Democrats who are now trying to cover it up as a legitimate investigation when it was clearly a smear campaign.
Aren’t these the same types of civil rights violations Obama claims the Bush administration has been committing and he’s going to put a stop to? Where is Obama to stop this travesty of an investigation from going down as anything but a smear campaign? He has thus far remained silent on the issue.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 7:58 pm and is filed under 2008 Election, Political Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
“Jones-Kelley said she approved a check to determine if he was current on any ordered child-support payments”
Errrr What?.
“Joe the plumber” has custody of his son, you were trying to determine if he was not paying child support to himself?
Question, if you found no evidence of “Joe the plumber” making child support payments to “Joe the plumber” would you have garnished “Joe the plumber” wages and made certain that that money form “Joe the plumber” got to “Joe the plumber”?
Seriously Ms. Jones-Kelley you really are to stupid to remain employed.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
“Our practice is when someone is thrust quickly into the public spotlight, we often take a look” at them, Jones-Kelley said, citing a case where a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support. “Our practice is to basically look at what is coming our way.”
BS. Please supply 20 examples of your “practice” along with their related “internet” smear campaign?
“a lottery winner was found to owe past-due child support”
Uhm Ms. Jones-Kelley “Joe the plumber” did not “win” the lottery, all he did was ask a public servant a question.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
“Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.
More BS! If not political, why was the check done and why was it made public!
“Based on what we know to this point, we don’t have any reason to believe the information was improperly accessed or disclosed by a state employee,” said Keith Dailey, Strickland’s press secretary”
Really? So what was the PROPER reason that a state employee accessed or disclosed privet citizen “Joe the plumber” info?
This should be a hoot!
October 28th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
The state attorney general’s office said today that information on “Joe” was accessed from a test account it shared with contractors who developed a computer network for the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police.
Uhm Ms. Jones-Kelley has already said SHE AUTHORIZED IT!
October 28th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
“The State Highway Patrol is investigating the “unauthorized access,” said Jennifer Brindisi, spokeswoman for Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers. Access to the account was given to the unidentified contractors four years ago, she said”
So why are you now “protecting” this unidentified contractors?
Do you often give Access codes to unidentified folks just walking down the street?
Considering the code was still valid that would indicate it’s a “master code” not to many people EVER get those. It shouldn’t be that hard to track down.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
“The attorney general’s office was unaware contractors for the police chiefs’ association still had access to state information, Brindisi said.
The contractors developed the Ohio Local Law Enforcement Information Sharing Network, which now is operated by the attorney general’s office. Security codes since have been changed and access limited to test accounts, she said.”
JHC! It took blogers less than 4 hr to track down the idiot who “hacked” into Palin’s e-mail! 2 weeks later and you can’t track down the contractor that you gave the codes too?