Verizon Employees Spied on Obama Records: Hey, Now He Knows How Joe the Plumber Feels

You can guarantee the folks who did this will probably be fired and prosecuted. After all, we have a double standard at work in this country.

Verizon Wireless employees gained unauthorized access to President-elect Barack Obama's personal cellphone account and viewed his records, the company revealed yesterday.

An Obama aide said his voice-mail messages and e-mails were not breached in the incident.

"We were notified yesterday that employees had accessed the records of an old cellphone no longer in use," the aide said. "No voice or e-mails were listened to or read."

The company said the device in question was a simple voice phone, not a BlackBerry or other unit designed for e-mail or other data services.

See, if you're Joe the Plumber, every facet of your life was spied on, yet nothing will happen. Oh wait, check that. Someone gets suspended for a month.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is standing by an agency director who OK'd improper computer checks for confidential information on "Joe the Plumber" and used state e-mails for political fundraising.

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."

Husted needs to get with the program. Rules don't apply to Democrats. Doesn't he realize this yet?