It’s Hard to Get Good Help
Sunday, April 10, 2005
(SNN) It seems ironic that with so many people looking for work, it is still hard to find good help these days. A perfect illustration of this problem comes to us from Senator Mel Martinez of Florida. What chance do ordinary people have of finding good employees if people like Martinez can not?
Martinez was able to find the source of the memo and fire the employee responsible.
Recently, Martinez has become the center of a scandal based on a memo that came out of his office and that he passed to people on the Senate floor. On Fox News Sunday March 20, Martinez denied to Chris Wallace that he was responsible for the memo that had "talking points" for Republican Senators to use in the politicization of the Terri Schiavo case. It must have been embarrassing to Martinez to find out that this memo that he did not know about and was passing out, came from his senior aid, Brian Darling. Fortunately, Martinez was able to find the source of the memo and fire the employee responsible.
But this is not Martinez’s only bout with bad staffing. In 2004, the Martinez campaign sent out mailers calling Republican opponent Bill McCollum “the new darling of the homosexual extremists.” After Martinez won the primary, he claimed full responsibility for the smearing of McCollum. Although he took full responsibility, he claimed no responsibility for the statement, saying that a couple of “young turks” were responsible, and that the name calling didn’t reflect "who I am or what I stand for."
Although he took full responsibility, he claimed no responsibility for the statement
In the general election campaign that followed, Martinez attacked former U.S. attorney Janet Reno, claiming that the Justice Department used “armed thugs” to seize Elian Gonzalez and send him back to Cuba. At the time, Reno was promoting Martinez’s opponent, Betty Castor. It was pointed out that one of the “armed thugs” employed by Reno was in fact a federal agent used in one of Martinez’s own campaign ads. Martinez was quick to point of that the wording of Martinez’s statement was the mistake of one of his staffers.
One must feel pity for Mel Martinez. If he had made these mistakes and was not a U.S. Senator, many would think him a lying hypocrite, a psychopathic opportunist or at the very least an incompetent boob. Fortunately though, he has been able to overcome the shortcomings of his vastly inept staff.
