Ohio official OK’d records search on Joe the Plumber

posted at 11:00 am on October 28, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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The Columbus Dispatch reports that at least one culprit has emerged from the misuse of public information to attack Joe Wurzelbacher — and to no one’s surprise, she’s a Democrat and a big Barack Obama supporter.  Helen Jones-Kelly decided to check on Wurzelbacher as soon as he became an issue in the third presidential debate.  But this maxed-out donor to Obama swears that she had no political reasons for her sudden curiosity about Wurzelbacher:

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.

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.

The more likely explanation comes from Ace:

Yes, Helen Jones-Kelley (two e’s in Kelley) just happens to be a maximum $2300 contributor to Barack Obama.

What a [expletive] shock, huh?

But she provides this sort of illegal intrusion into personal records for anyone who “comes into the public light.” It’s a public service, you see.

Right.

Riiiiight.

Here’s an even bigger shock:

Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland is satisfied that there are no political overtures to the check on Wurzelbacher, a spokesman said.  “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.

No reason to believe that Wurzelbacher got politically vetted for dirt?  What reason existed to look up his information at that particular point in time?  Had someone filed a complaint against Joe?  The act of opening his court records by a public agency has to have some motivation, and if no reason for a legitimate investigation exists, then by deduction the reasons were illegitimate — and almost certainly a Dumpster Dive for Dirt.

Change You Can Believe In — The State Will Own You.  You’d better believe it.

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