• Abuse of Power? : Another DCCC ad claims Joy Padgett, an Ohio Republican running for Bob Ney's House seat, was investigated "for abusing her position to help her own business." The ad is misleading. It's true that Ohio's Inspector General received a complaint – from somebody requesting anonymity – claiming that Padgett had abused her position as director of the Governor's Office of Appalachia by coercing would-be grant recipients to buy goods from her office supply business. The IG did investigate, but what the ad fails to mention is that the investigation found "no substance to the allegation."
That Inspector General's report also noted in passing that appearances can be deceiving. It said public officials "should be aware that while such appearances may often have no basis in fact, they may be incorrectly assumed as fact by the casual observer." The message to officials is to be careful of how things look. But citizens should be equally careful not to be a "casual observer" of political spots. Examined carefully they often turn out to have "no basis in fact," either.
