Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber

[Psephos]

Source: The Columbus Dispatch

"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama. The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.

Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate. Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.

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Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories...

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Note that this has no demonstrated linkage with anyone in Obama's campaign.

[phaseolus]

1. Why? Probably just morbid curiosity on the part of the searchers.

Note that I'm not trying to excuse government workers' intrusions on peoples' privacy, but --

I think it's likely that those people who searched also know a *lot* about their neighbors, in-laws, exes, former coworkers. People are nosy.

[bleowheels]

2. When Obama's and Clinton's passport information was compromised,

it was conveniently swept under the rug and the guilty employees were never publicly reprimanded. As far as I recall but I could be wrong. This seems like a partisan republican official purposely put forth this information. For what other reason would one make it public?

[Nambe]

3. Why would Obama care. McCain was vetting a poster boy. I´d bet on it.

The old boy network throughout law enforcement is traditionally conservative with a hint of ¨you geeks went to college but we have the guns and the badges¨. The mistrust between enforcement officers with degrees and those without is the basis of most jurisdiction conflicts and miscommunication between agencies and departments. From the local city cop to the head of the CIA, there is a streak of conservatism that gives a group like the neo-cons a frightening amount muscle everywhere you go. I wish I was wrong, but I am not.

[Ian David]

4. They may have been illegally trying to vet Joe for the McCain campaign. n/t