Gilmore/McCain vs Warner/Obama — Using a Computer

After I hit the send button a friend alerted me that I had just made the biggest blunder of my career.

About a decade ago Your Business Blogger(R) was helping a good friend and fellow board member of the Family Foundation in Virginia, Ruble Hord, make a run for the House of Delegates.

The Yoests and Jim Gilmore

I emailed an invitation to an event to 200 of our closest friends to help raise funds for his effort for conservative values in central Virginia.

But I made a mistake. A whopper. I embarrassed my boss, hurt the candidate, and got a sarcastic write up by Tyler Whitley in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

(My complete humiliation was averted in that the RTD didn’t run a picture, as they would with most Republican criminals…)

My mistake?

I used the wrong computer. A government computer, owned by the tax payers of The Commonwealth.

I goofed. I forgot where I was, working day and night, non-stop, intense pressure, new on the job, etc and etc and whining etc…

The Governor through his chief of staff wrote me a scathing letter of reprimand that left burn scars to this day (seen and unseen). His deputy hand delivered the letter and carried out the, um, verbal corrective interview.

Even though said deputy and I are friends today — it was not a pretty sight back then.

All this happened in a few hours. Tyler Whitley published his article the next day.

The only thing that kept me from being terminated (serving at The Pleasure of the Governor) was my instant remorse to the CEO’s quick action.

Such an “oversight” eg stoopidity, on my part did not need to be evaded or minimized. I was wrong. I violated the public trust.

And the boss made sure that I knew it.

Fortunately, it was only a one day story, but it felt much, much worse.

The Governor who issued the stern, public and immediate reprimand was James Gilmore.

Now running for Senator in Virginia.

This is the difference between the liberal/socialists Obama/Warner and the conservative/capitalists McCain/Gilmore.

When Gilmore saw one of his people using government property to advance a political agenda he did not cover up, did not stonewall, did not deflect. He did the right thing, even if it meant a public flogging of a brilliant staffer political appointee.

Note what the liberal/socialist’s team of the Obama/Warner ticket does when government property is used to malign “Joe the Plumber.”

Nothing.

Nothing.

There will be no investigation, no checking the facts, no public apology. No media spotlight either, but that’s outside the scope of this post.

A Gilmore conservative staffer used a government computer and was publicly displayed in the light.

A Warner/Obama liberal staffer used a government computer and is quietly hidden in the dark.

Vote for Jim Gilmore for honest, open government. He lives out public service transparency.

I’m proof.