Thursday Thoughts

Meg Whitman just settled the dispute with her former illegal alien maid for $5500.  You can bet that publicity loving, ambulance chaser, close friend of Jerry Brown, attorney Gloria Allred got her 50% of that huge settlement.

"Allred said Whitman and her neurosurgeon husband, Griffith Harsh, owed Diaz Santillan $8,000 to $10,000 for additional duties and expenses, such as mileage, beyond cleaning house. She claimed the maid was owed for grocery shopping, driving the couple's children around town and performing other errands during her nine-year employment. She did not release specifics about the settlement except to say that it did not include mileage."

Of course, Ms Allred makes good use of a photo shoot:

"Diaz Santillan's celebrity attorney, Gloria Allred, stood by and held Diaz Santillan close to her with one arm, never letting go. Another arm would have made it a bear hug."

Originally, the issue was that Whitman knowingly hired an illegal alien to work for her yet campaigning against the hiring of them.  Whitman claimed the subject of the maid was brought to public light just before the election in which she was running for governor against Jerry Brown and she alleged that Brown supporters (including Allred) were behind it.

Whitman denied she knowingly hired an illegal alien. She had used an employment agency which assured her that through their vetting process none of their employees were illegal.  When Whitman's husband had received notices from the IRS about Santillan's employment, Santilla assured them she had responded and resolved the inquiries.  Finally Whitman discovered that Santillan had lied about her residency and she immediately fired Santillan.  She even had documentation proving all this.  If she had kept employing her, Whitman would have been in deep trouble with immigration and IRS officials.

The media raked Whitman over the coals for firing a 9 year employee with no notice, and Allred milked it for all its worth describing Santillan as " like a member of their family."  Whitman was in a no-win situation - she did what she was legally required to do and her opponents spun it into a class war of big wealth against poor innocent immigrant (albeit liar) just trying to eke out a living in America.

Apparently Whitman was in the right, because there is no charge of hiring an undocumented worker and Ms. Allred had to find a way somehow to get paid:

"Dennis Brown, Whitman's attorney in the matter, described the $5,500 settlement as "routine" for this sort of pay dispute. He said the only reason the issue was heard was because there were no time cards involved and he emphasized that the settlement does not mean Whitman and her husband admit wrongdoing"

I am not a supporter of either political party, but I am sick and tired of this type of political maneuvering in which the public is manipulated into thinking that some crime has been committed when it has not.

Something very similar happened in the Illinois governor's race when Illinois current governor Quinn's supporters spent thousands of dollars on ads stating that his opponent had not paid any income taxes. The ads made it sound like his opponent had done something illegal or was skipping out on taxes due.

Quinn's opponent was a real estate developer and we all know what happened in the real estate market over the past few years.  His business had tremendous losses which wiped out any income he earned as a state senator and consequently resulted in a net loss (zero taxable income) on his tax return.

It all comes back to political parties (and it just happens that it is the Democratic Party in both these cases) using class envy as a way to destroy candidates.  It used to be that in this country women who rose up the corporate ladder were touted as heroines and businessmen who took risk, hired employees, and made money were admired.  Now people want to destroy them.