To follow up on the story where several Ohio agencies did investigations into the background of Joe The Plumber, we get
Ohio’s inspector general is investigating why a state agency director approved checking the state child-support computer system for information on “Joe the Plumber.”
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.
Such information was not and cannot be publicly shared, she said. It is unclear if Wurzelbacher is involved in a child-support case. Reports state that he lives alone with a 13-year-old son.
“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.”
Ah. So they just do that on anyone who gets famous. Is she serious? Joe should file a lawsuit against her and the department for violating his civil rights and privacy. Maybe the ACLU of Ohio, or even the national office, would care to help? Interesting how it also seems to be Democrats who use government offices to check people out for the hell of it, eh?
Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland [who appointed Jones-Kelly this past January] is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.
Did I forget to mention that Jones-Kelly is a maxed out Obama donor? Ace has the scoop on that. Nothing political in the investigation, though. Are Democrats taught to lie like that, or is it just natural?
Update: Via Michelle Malkin, one of the snoops from the Toledo PD has a wee bit of a problem
Toledo Police have confirmed that a TPD records clerk is accused of performing an illegal search of information related to ‘Joe the Plumber.’
Julie McConnell, has been charged with Gross Misconduct for allegedly making an improper inquiry into a state database in search of information pertaining to Samuel Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16.
The only Julie McConnel I could find who lives in Toledo through multiple white pages listings doesn’t appear to be registered to vote in Lucas County, Ohio, where Toledo is. Of course, the Julie McConnell in question may not have a home phone. However, I downloaded the voter list for Lucas County, and guess what I found?
MCCONNELL,JULIE,MARIE,,1970,05/18/1998,D,TOLEDO,OH,43612,,,, , ,,,,,,,,,,,09,06,,,,TOLEDO,TOLEDO 11J,48-P-AJH,02,49,11,,,WARD 11,X,X,,X,,X,,,,X,,,X,,,X,,,,,D,
I have removed her address and potential social security information, though, you can find it easily enough. That D in red means registered Democrat. Downloaded from the Ohio county voter FTP database.
I hope we can look at this case without any talk of gender, political affiliation, race, or anything else other than what is important. A person was given a job and with that job a great responsibility and trust. That person violated that trust by unlawfully investigating another citizen of the state thus violating that citizen’s privacy, and it appears to have been done for political reasons to negatively affect that private citizen and to make that information available nationally. The response to this violation should be termination. Every cop in the country knows this to be the case and knows that if he or she did the same thing they would be disciplined and more than likely terminated and criminally charged. I’m assuming that a political operative who happens to work for a police department would be treated the same.
If the clerk did wrong, yeah, I agree, she should be terminated. Unfortunately, I can’t leave political affiliation out of it, because that will be a main reason for the illegal access to the records.