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Plumber checks lead to flood of questions
By Dennis J. Willard
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Nov 02, 2008
COLUMBUS: Like former President Richard Nixon, Gov. Ted Strickland has a plumber problem.
Specifically, ''Joe the Plumber,'' aka Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.
Wurzelbacher is the ubiquitous everyman from the Toledo area who confronted Democrat Barack Obama, linked arms with Republican John McCain and in the process, spurred inquisitive minds in state government to start snooping around in his files.
And if Strickland is not careful, his plumber problem could undermine everything he wants to do in the remaining two years of his term.
Yes, it is that serious.
Helen Jones-Kelley, Strickland's Ohio Department of Job and Family Services director, is trying to downplay her decision to authorize a background check on Wurzelbacher after McCain continued to refer to him while debating Obama.
Jones-Kelley maintains her agency routinely conducts background checks on individuals who come to its attention, often through the media like Wurzelbacher, to determine whether they owe child support, unemployment compensation, or back taxes or whether they are legally entitled to any public assistance they may be receiving.
So when Joe the Plumber became a household name, Jones-Kelley had her agency check him out.
She explains this in a three-page letter to Ohio Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, who outlined questions of his own in a letter to Strickland and the director.
''I would never authorize or turn a blind eye to accessing departmentally maintained databases for any nongovernmental purpose,'' Jones-Kelley notes.
''When a news story brings to our attention a person who has recently realized a financial windfall or which otherwise suggests that the person may have more financial resources available to them than might be expected, we take note.''
Lottery and lawsuit winners and anyone else the media deem important enough to write about are often routinely checked, Jones-Kelley said.
''Not surprisingly, when a person behind in child support or receiving public assistance is receiving significant media coverage, which suggests that the person appears to have available financial resources, the department risks justifiable criticism if it fails to take note and respond,'' she explains to Harris.
This is her damned if we do, damned if we don't argument.
Jones-Kelley provided Harris with a lot of information in her letter, and promised she is gathering answers to questions posed by the Senate president.
Those issues left unaddressed are the most important facing Jones-Kelley and Strickland.
Who has the agency checked on in the past year? Who asked for the checks? Why? Who received the information? What documentation exists — letters, e-mails, etc., — regarding the background checks on people, as Harris puts it, in the ''public spotlight''?
''While the General Assembly has the authority to subpoena this information, I hope this will not be necessary,'' Harris writes Strickland and Jones-Kelley.
Jones-Kelley has indicated there is no written policy.
This is disturbing, because her department is huge and has loads of extremely personal information about families and individuals in its databases. No agency in state government should be more cautious than Job and Family Services when it comes to protecting identities and privacy.
Yet there were no strict guidelines or rigid protocols to follow before someone in the state agency authorized a background check, which means anyone could initiate a probe without justification.
Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles has opened his own inquiry into the matter.
Republicans are seizing on the issue, and why not? Strickland set the ethical bar high for his administration when he ran for governor in 2006, and Democrats have justifiably criticized President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for not respecting privacy rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
State Rep. Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, has asked Strickland to place Jones-Kelley on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He also wants the governor to issue an executive order to all state agencies to review and report back within 30 days on their policies regarding access to private data.
He points out that Jones-Kelley contributed $2,300 to Obama's presidential campaign, which at the least creates an unacceptable perception of political motivation.
Batchelder argues Jones-Kelley's explanation that the background check was in the ordinary course of business is ''without merit.''
Batchelder asks: Does this mean the mention of a job promotion in a hometown paper or the recently crowned homecoming king and queen at Ohio State will be reviewed?
''In the absence of credible evidence of fraud or a reliable accusation of delinquency, no Ohioan should be subject to a 'witch hunt' on the whim of a public official,'' Batchelder says in his letter to Strickland.
Time to step in
Strickland may be preoccupied with the election this week, but he does not need to wait for Charles to investigate or for the legislature to subpoena records from Jones-Kelley.
She works for him and all he has to do is call her in and demand immediate answers to the questions being posed by his Republican critics.
Strickland needs to convince Ohioans that he had nothing to do with the background checks on Wurzelbacher.
This would be a giant step toward resolving his plumber problem.
The governor knows all too well that it was the cover-up, not the crime, that forced Nixon to resign from the highest office in the land.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Like former President Richard Nixon, Gov. Ted Strickland has a plumber problem.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 10:34 AM, 11/02/2008
It is obvious that Helen Jones-Kelley did this on her own volition as a political hack job for her candidate of choice, Obama.
It is a severe abuse of her powers and Strickland simply needs to fire her and move on as I am sure he had nothing to do with it.
Tallmadge, OH
Posted 11:03 AM, 11/02/2008
Investigating a possible dead beat dad like Joe The Plumber is perfectly fine. I'm glad to see he still hasn't paid his back taxes which makes him another dead beat. This is McCain's hero for America's middle class? I don't think so.
Posted 11:16 AM, 11/02/2008
How very J Edgar Hoover of Jones-Kelley.
Posted 11:26 AM, 11/02/2008
So by the way, what did the background check reveal? The article does not mention this which I find rather curious.
People that are not deadbeats do not have to worry about DJFS looking into them. Honestly, if they did NOT do a check on those that win the lottery etc, everyone would be outraged if they found out the state paid a big lottery check to someone that owed child support.
Akron, OH
Posted 04:44 PM, 11/02/2008
That's right . . destroy a working stiff who asked a question that revealed the mentality Obama and Co. have tried to keep covered . . .
And meanwhile, The Washington Post defends the "privacy" of Obama's aunt who was ordered to be deported in 2004, and it explains also,
"Federal privacy law restricts U.S. immigration agencies from disclosing information about citizens and permanent residents, and DHS policy similarly limits disclosures about the status of legal and illegal immigrants."
So illegal aliens have more right to privacy than illegals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/01/AR2008110102187.html
Akron, OH
Posted 04:46 PM, 11/02/2008
Correcting last sentence So illegal aliens have more right to privacy than the plumber in Ohio.
Orrville, Oh
Posted 04:56 PM, 11/02/2008
No one checked to see that reality demands Governor Strickland hold Joe the Plumbers boss, every corporation, farmer, business, outsourcer sweatshop, and nonprofit, tax-exempt, organization and Church accountable. To market the cost in the wholesale and retail price of his or her product and service. Of every workers, consumers, taxpayers, and Joe the Plummer living (including pension and health care). Enabling parents to love, nurse, nurture, discipline, protect, and provide, for every child (job) they conceive and fund schools, infrastructure, national security, government services, and etc.; with money derived from wages or independent business profit.
Posted 05:18 PM, 11/02/2008
The real tragedy here is that our beloved mainstream media has held Joe the Plumber more accountable than it has Barack Obama.
San Diego, CA
Posted 06:02 PM, 11/02/2008
"Joe the Plumber" did nothing more than to try to embarrass Barack Obama. He's really a fraud that the right wing faction have made a celebrity. He didn't have a plumber's license and really had no intention of buying the business. There was no truth or sincerity in his concerns. John McCain shows how desperate his campaign is by having this idiot stump for him at rallies.
McCain has given him celebrity. Let the guy take the scrutiny that goes with it. I have no sympathy for him. And...he gives the name a bad name!
Posted 07:30 AM, 11/03/2008
An agency that constantly cries about a lack of funds to properly perform basic functions on existing cases has plenty of political resources to "get curious" about citizens who make the news.
Is this the begining of the "Change" for which we are looking???
A new Government elitist movement
Posted 08:18 AM, 11/03/2008
Comrade Obama's Marxist allies (Democrats) are now planning Obama's second Marxist act, that concerning everyone's retirement 401k. Comrade Obama and allies are now saying that you will have your 401k transferred into government-created accounts" for everyone with a 401k. The government will pay a 3 percent return on your 401k money. YEP THREE PERCENT!! This is what you can expect out of Barack Obama. Oh yes, Obama's first Marxist act has already been put into motion. It is the Obama sponsored US Senate Bill S2433 and it is an act of a empty headed dreamer. Obama's S2433 will cost us tax paying Americans 845 Billion in ADDITIONAL taxes. The money from Obama's S2433 will be given to the corrupt United Nations, specifically for "The UN Global Poverty Act". Your hard earned money will then be REDISTRIBUTED to third world dictators. Google: Obama's S2433
Bizarrebertucky, OH
Posted 08:19 AM, 11/03/2008
That was important information that the whole country needed to know, and I applaud them for bringing it to our attention. Now we know that the Republican poster child is a fraud,just like their Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates are.
Akron, Oh
Posted 02:31 PM, 11/04/2008
Criticize the government by asking a question and making a contrary statement and then you end up in exile...sounds like we're back in the U.S.S.R. Private information is required by many government agencies...how dare it become common knowledge for someone's personal or political gain.
