both TonyRo76 and LasVegasDave.
Posted on 10/31/2008 5:48:32 PM PDT by buccaneer81
State employee says she was ordered to check out Joe the Plumber Friday, October 31, 2008 8:21 PM By Randy Ludlow The Columbus Dispatch Vanessa Niekamp said that when was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.
Niekamp didn't know she just had checked on "Joe the Plumber," who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain's example in a debate of an average American.
The senior manager would not learn about "Joe" for another week, when she said her boss informed her and directed her to write an e-mail stating her computer check was a legitimate inquiry.
The reason Niekamp said she was given for checking if there was a child-support case on Wurzelbacher does not match the reason given by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Director Helen Jones-Kelley said her agency checks people who are "thrust into the public spotlight," amid suggestions they may have come into money, to see if they owe support or are receiving undeserved public assistance.
Niekamp told The Dispatch she is unfamiliar with the practice of checking on the newly famous. "I've never done that before, I don't know of anybody in my office who does that and I don't remember anyone ever doing that," she said today.
Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland and Jones-Kelley, both supporters of Democrat Barack Obama, have denied political motives in checking on Wurzelbacher. The Toledo-area resident later endorsed McCain. State officials say any information on "Joe" is confidential and was not released.
Today,Strickland press secretary Keith Dailey said neither the governor's office nor Job and Family Services officials could comment due to an ongoing investigation by Ohio's inspector general.
Republican legislators have called the checks suspicious and Jones-Kelley's reason for them flimsy. They are demanding to know whether state computers were accessed in an attempt to dig up dirt on Wurzelbacher.
Jones-Kelley has revealed that her agency also checked Wurzelbacher to see if he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes. "Joe the Plumber" has said he is not involved in a child-support case.
About 3 p.m. on Oct. 16, Niekamp said Carrie Brown, assistant deputy director for child support, asked her to run Wurzelbacher through the computer. Citing privacy laws, Niekamp would not say what, if anything, was found on "Joe."
On Oct. 23, Niekamp said Doug Thompson, deputy director for child support, told her she had checked on "Joe the Plumber." Thompson "literally demanded" that she write an e-mail to the agency's chief privacy officer stating she checked the case for child-support purposes, she said.
Thompson told her that Jones-Kelley said Wurzelbacher might buy a plumbing business and could owe support. Thompson said he replied that he "would check him out."
Niekamp, 38, a senior child-support manager, said she never heard any discussion of politics amid what her supervisors told her about the checks on Wurzelbacher.
Worried about her $69,000-a-year job and potential criminal charges, the 15-year state employee said she went to Inspector General Thomas P. Charles on Oct. 24. She has seen employees fired, and dismissed one herself, for illegally accessing personal information in support cases. Niekamp, a registered Republican, said politics played no role in what she told investigators.
The e-mail that Niekamp said she wrote was not among records provided yesterday to The Dispatch in response to a public-records request. Nor did the agency, as required by state law, say it withheld any records.
Strickland spokesman Dailey later said one e-mail was withheld from The Dispatch because its release is prohibited by federal or state law. He did not explain under what specific law the e-mail was withheld.
Sheesh, you have nothing to add. Or know what is going on.
CYA hack alert. Can these bozos. Unfortunately, they’ll probably be rewarded.
Just like them hacking Palin’s e-mail. Let’s move on. Why exactly did Nixon get run again? Oh yeah, he played for the wrong side.
In a pig's eye!
In this town, we have cops trolling employer parking lots looking for vehicles from out-of-county which haven't been submitted by owners to the emissions test (tax) required of vehicles and owners registered within the county.
I'm sick of all of it. Might as well just hang a GPS and portable health monitor on all of us so we can be charged for leaving the house, eating a donut or smoking a cigarette.
It’s that ole Democrat Culture of Corruption again.
Not sure of his party. But he is a holdover from former Gov. Taft (R-as in RINO.)
She was an expendable Taft hire kept on for just such a mission. I can believe it, LOL.
If you register your weapons with the state, it's only a matter of time until they come to get them.
If there is no policy that requires a request be in writing, then she was just doing another task her boss asked her to do.
Being run by ‘rats, it wouldn't surprise me if they run the place like that, but we don't know enough yet to make that determination one way or the other.
They probably had her do it because she is a Republican and not one of their own.
BTTT
Wow, awfully worked up, aren’t we? Are you paid with tax dollars, by chance?
Actually, it is more likely that the pay is out of a fund donated for the evangelism of the Almighty One. That ONE that we don’t mention by full name....
This really is a MUST READ thread.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.