Snoopers Out of Jobs

Helen Jones-Kelley, the head of the Ohio agency that snooped in Ohio computer records searching for dirt on Joe the Plumber has resigned after going on unpaid leave for a month. Two other managers were fired.

Two senior managers suspended for their roles in the scandal that spiced this year's presidential campaign also are leaving, The Dispatch has learned. The administration fired Doug Thompson, deputy director of child support. Fred Williams, assistant agency director, resigned effective Jan. 31.

The action came soon after the Republican-controlled General Assembly approved a measure cracking down on state workers who improperly conduct checks involving Ohioans' personal information.

Republicans complained that Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, who promised to set a high ethical standard as governor, was letting Jones-Kelley off too lightly. Now, Strickland must decide whether to sign the bill, which Republicans say is a step toward restoring Ohioans' trust in government.

"The institution of state government and the trust is paramount and stands above any of us, and I think she made the right decision," House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said.

Both Strickland and Jones-Kelley rejected calls for her dismissal last month after a report by Inspector General Thomas P. Charles found that the database checks that Jones-Kelley approved on Toledo-area resident Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were for no legitimate government purpose.

I'd call that a good start. She and the other people who used the computer records to search for dirt broke Ohio law and violated the public trust.

There are still other Ohio officials who used the computer systems to check Joe's records, and their status is still up in the air. I'd like to see criminal prosecutions go forward against these people because they not only violated the public trust, but actively engaged in a chilling of dissent and free speech by their conduct. The mere act of asking questions was sufficient to get these people to abuse their positions and run computer searches to try and dig up dirt on Wurzelbacher.

In fact, the media did much of the same - finding out more details about Wurzelbacher than they have done on Obama's relationships with Tony Rezko and Ron Blagojevich.

Yet, Jones-Kelley thinks that this now eliminates a political distraction from pressing state business. Maybe she should have thought of that before using her political position to further the partisan political agenda of her chosen candidate when he was outed as nothing more than a redistributionist tax and spend Democrat by a guy on the street who merely asked questions that the media steadfastly refused to do throughout Obama's coronation.

You Don't Say: Joe the Plumbers Records Searched Improperly

Well, this should surprise absolutely no one, even the most partisan Obama supporters. What the Ohio politicians did to Joe Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, was nothing short of criminal.

Even Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat, has been forced to take action in the matter, suspending Helen Jones-Kelley for her running searches on Joe and claiming that they were part of some official government policy, although what she did is not only a firing offense, but criminal:

Strickland announced today that Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, will be placed on unpaid leave for one month in response to an inspector general's investigation.

The investigation found Jones-Kelley had no legitimate reasons to check on Toledo-area resident Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, who was popularized as "Joe the Plumber" by Republican presidential candidate John McCain. It also confirmed she improperly used her state e-mail account to raise campaign money for President-elect Barack Obama.

Some Republican leaders, who cited the report's findings to call on Democrat Strickland to fire Jones-Kelley, were stunned that she will remain on the job.

"The actions described in this report cross the line of what you can do and lead a state agency. She violated the public trust," said House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering.

"The governor's lack of firm action here sends a message he is going to be tolerant of a state government that acts in inappropriate ways. He promised a higher standard and this is a lower standard."

Jones-Kelley was far from alone in running computer searches on Joe, as several other agencies were involved, but no one did so from as high a position as Jones-Kelley.

The inspector general's report found that the e-mails violated Strickland's policy on political activity and constituted a "wrongful act" as an inappropriate use of state resources.

The report also faulted other agency employees for their role in the computer checks on Wurzelbacher.

The report found that assistant agency director Fred Williams and Doug Thompson, a deputy child-support director, bore some responsibility for the checks run the day after the Oct. 15 presidential debate.

"Thompson's conduct is further called into question" by his directing a Job and Family Services employee to send a "deceptive" e-mail to another agency official explaining that the check she ran on Wurzelbacher was for child-support purposes.

Ohio Suspends Helen Jones-Kelley For Her Actions

Well, this is actually a belated surprise. Helen Jones-Kelley, who authorized searches into Joe Wurzelbacher's records in Ohio databases, has been suspended from her job as investigators continue looking into her actions. Ohio Governor Ted Strickland finally got around to suspending her.

Ohio Job & Family Services director Helen Jones-Kelley, a supporter of President-elect Barack Obama, was suspended after a check of state computers and state e-mail found connections to political fundraising, which is not allowed on state property.

The fundraising activity related to Obama's campaign, to which Jones-Kelley contributed $2,500.

"Today, I have decided to place Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley on paid administrative leave due to the possibility, as yet unconfirmed, that a state computer or state e-mail account was used to assist in political fundraising," Gov. Ted Strickland said in a statement.

Jones-Kelley was already under investigation by the state inspector general's office for authorizing a personal records search on Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber.

"I have asked Inspector General Tom Charles to include this matter in his current, ongoing investigation," Strickland said. "Also, I have asked Cabinet Secretary Jan Allen to serve as acting director of the agency."

She gave the asinine answer that such searches of famous people were routinely conducted when Wurzelbacher became a household name as Joe the Plumber after he asked Barack Obama about his economic policy and Obama replied with the now infamous comments on redistribution of wealth.

There was no legitimate reason for her, or anyone else, to conduct those searches. There are specific guidelines to carry out database searches, and they're specifically designed to prevent partisan abuse, which is precisely what Jones-Kelley engaged in. She had her subordinates carry out searches, despite the fact there is no policy to do so.

Suspension is only a good start. Criminal sanctions should be forthcoming as well.

The Ohio Obama Plumbers; The Plot Thickens

As bad as the crime was, the coverup is invariably always worse. Ohio's Director of Job and Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley, is making a bad situation worse. It's turning into a full blown criminal coverup of epic proportions.

Someone lied to the state employee who ran the search on Joe Wurzelbacher, and then was told to keep the matter quiet and the reasoning changed for the search after the fact.

Vanessa Niekamp said that when she 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.

The Director is lying to cover her ass. She knows that employees are fired for illegally accessing the computer records. So does Niekamp, and Niekamp has fired employees who have engaged in illegally accessing computer records. There's absolutely no reason that anyone should have checked Joe's computerized records in this instance, and most certainly he did not inquire about his own status to generate searches of a multitude of state records.

Kelley abused her position to have her subordinates engage in a fishing expedition to dig up dirt on Joe the Plumber, whose sole transgression was having the audacity to ask Sen. Barack Obama a question about his economic policy. It was an innocuous question, but Obama's response was most illuminating as to Obama's true intent - the redistribution of wealth.

Niekamp was tricked into running the searches, and those who told her to run the searches must be held accountable. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. They abused their power, and used the computerized searches to engage in a partisan attack on someone who they believed was a threat to someone who they sought to elevate to the Office of the President.

Hot Air also notices the coverup in Ohio and the partisan politicians at the state's highest level are attempting to bury the story even as the criminality of those involved becomes all too clear.

UPDATE:
The media is ignoring the story. Other than the Columbus Dispatch, the media isn't looking into the story in any way, shape or form. The NYT doesn't even have anything on it. MSNBC? Nada.

They simply aren't interested in a scandal of what's growing into epic proportions - because of the coverup no less. It's sad. You have government officials abusing their power and obstructing justice with lying about their intentions to run database searches for purely partisan reasons. Where is the accountability?

UPDATE:
Wurzelbacher says that he doesn't have a child support case. Jones-Kelley's excuses keep changing, and it doesn't make it any better. There was nothing routine about running his name through the databases, and there most certainly wasn't a "public spotlight search protocol" in place.

Obama's Ohio Plumbers Far More Insidious Than Previously Acknowledged

Big Brother is watching if you get out of line and question the absolute moral authority associated with the Obama campaign. This shouldn't be surprising at all.

A state agency has revealed that its checks of computer systems for potential information on "Joe the Plumber" were more extensive than it first acknowledged.

Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.

The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote.

Jones-Kelley made the revelations in a letter to Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, who demanded answers on why state officials checked out Wurzelbacher.

Harris called the multiple records checks "questionable" and said he awaits more answers. "It's kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket," he said.

If state employees run checks on every person listed in newspaper stories as buying a business, "it must take a lot of people a lot of time to run these checks," he said. "Where do you draw the line?"

The situation at the state level in Ohio is an absolute partisan nightmare, and that state officials sanctioned the unauthorized access of computer databases to drum up any kind of dirt on Joe Wurzelbacher is absolutely criminal.

That no one in the state's Attorney General's office is going to prosecute these people to the fullest extent of the law is itself a dereliction of duty and a responsibility to the people of Ohio.

At a minimum, the Ohio governor should be demanding Helen Jones-Kelley's resignation or fire her for her actions immediately. There is no excuse for her actions, except that she thought it in the best interests of her chosen presidential preference, Sen. Barack Obama to see if there was any dirt on Wurzelbacher to attack him after he simply asked Obama a question on Obama's economic policy.

Obama's answers should be so thoroughly examined; instead, the media and the Obama partisans decided that the real issue was the guy who simply asked the candidate a question. This is an absolute chilling of free speech as Kelley's abusing her position of power for purely partisan purposes. There was absolutely no legitimate reason for her, or anyone else, to conduct state computer database searches on Wurzelbacher. None. She's admitted that her agency's searches were far more invasive than previously acknowledged, which was bad enough.

If only the media did as much work on the Obama campaign as they've done with Wurzelbacher.