Meg Whitman, the blame game, and the accountability gap

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So, wait, let me get this straight... California Republican gubernatorial candidate (and former eBay CEO) Meg Whitman:

• hires an undocumented (i.e., "illegal") immigrant as her housekeeper;
• keeps the woman, Nicky Diaz Santillan, on her payroll for nine years;
• claims, now that she's forced to deal with this in the middle of the campaign, that she didn't know anything about it; and
• now blames her opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown, and his "surrogates" for putting the woman at risk?

Classy.

The real tragedy here is Nicky. After Nov. 2, no one's going to be watching out for Nicky Diaz. And Jerry, you know you should be ashamed, you and your surrogates. put her deportation at risk. You put it out there and you should be ashamed for sacrificing Nicky Diaz on the altar of your political ambitions,

Whitman said yesterday at her debate with Brown in Fresno. Which is nonsense, of course. It's not Brown's fault that Whitman hired an undocumented immigrant and that the story is now dominating the race -- and it's not his fault what happens to Diaz. It may be a tragedy if she is deported, but the real tragedy is the use and abuse of undocumented immigrants by people like Whitman.

Besides, aren't Republicans supposed to be tough on illegal immigration? Or is it all okay when they use and abuse illegals in secret? To Whitman, perhaps, the real tragedy is that the story got out.

All of which is to say that Brown is right:

Don't run for governor if you can't stand up on your own two feet and say, "Hey I made a mistake." You have blamed her, blamed me, blamed the left, blamed the unions. But you don't take accountability.

It's everyone else's fault but her own, it seems.

There are many good reasons why she isn't right for Sacramento, but this whole episode shows just what sort of person she is.

I wonder what the opening bid on eBay would be on Whitman's conscience.