No one understands the problems of perception like the Democrat Party. They invest a good deal of time and money into hiding what they are truly up to. Almost as much time as they spend painting pictures of their opponents for the main stream media to hang on your living room walls. So we should not be surprised when a prominent member of the New Hampshire SEA, a chapter president with the local SEIU, sees the kind of perception issues he creates when we uncovered months, even years of online comments, posted during office hours, while he was supposed to be performing state business, on the taxpayer dime, from the Department of Environmental Services, where he is employed by you and I.
Perception is a problem but not nearly as much of a problem as reality.
How’s this for reality?
In an email dated March 10th, posted to me but a few days after my original report on the suspicious nature of the commenting habits of Richard de Seve, an employee at NH DES, he informed me that…
You have questioned whether I was responding to various comments on the Concord Monitor website on state time.
I can assure you that I have only responded or written comments during break periods. However, I also very much agree with you that having those comments posted during office hours at least gives the appearance of impropriety. As we both know, often perception becomes reality.
There is more, but let us digest this nugget first. This is an admission of the behavior we observed, with the caveat that the practice only occurred during breaks. Richard had a law practice for around ten years, is very likely a smart and articulate fellow, but given the uneven nature of the comment times, and in some cases the length, over (at the very least) all the months since November of 2008, the time needed to read, digest, and respond suggests that he is either stretching credibility beyond the realm of believability to cover his own ass or that the Department of Environmental Services has a very “liberal” break policy; one that may be consuming vast swaths of the average state employee’s work day. While I appreciate the ‘candor,’ such as it is, please do not take offense if we (at GraniteGrok) find it necessary to explore these claims at greater length, for the good of the State.
Further along,
In a spirit of cooperation, I would ask you in turn to apologize to my brothers and sisters in the SEA. The fact that I am an SEA member and chapter vice-president has absolutely nothing to do with my commenting online, and to suggest that, simply because I have done so, there is likely much similar activity by other union members is untrue and unfair to others in the union.
Having spent time in a union I know that there are people in it who just want a job. They have no interest in the union, rah-rah, and would opt out of forced union dues if given the option. And I doubt they’d be risking their jobs to do what Dick did on state time. But Dick is an SEIU chapter VP, and steward, who just happened to begin this regular run of remarks at the Concord Monitor in November of 2008, right after Obama was elected. I have known guys just like him. Everything is about the union, and you only have to read his comments to see that this is true. Besides, I never implied that that all the brothers and sisters were promoting the union agenda on the state dime, just that some of them might be…
Can we guess that there might be other SEIU/SEA, or other public employees engaged in similar activity during office hours?
So are there other (as in some or even a few) SEIU/SEA employees engaged in union politicking at local internet news portals on the taxpayer dime? You can bet your sweet ass there are. You can also bet that we are actively looking for them, are honing in on a few more, and that we will keep looking for anyone, like Mr. De Seve, who is a state employee promoting their political agenda during work hours.
And to be perfectly clear, this is not about ideology–that is just a bonus in this case. It is about the very real possibility of a public employee wasting our tax dollars to spread their ideology. And if I find a Republican, a Libertarian, or one of those so-called independents demonstrating the appearance of the same impropriety, they will get no quarter from me. We will investigate them as well, as time permits.
Now, to address the issue of the promised apology…
“To the members of the NH SEA and the SEIU who are embarrassed by the behavior of their brothers and sisters all across the nation who misuse taxpayer dollars, who spit on TEA party people at Obama events, call them names, beat up on a helpless black man, or engage in other acts of intimidation against the right of association, the right to assemble, and the right to free speech, because it runs counter to their jack-booted leftist agenda, I am truly sorry that we have been unable to free you from the tyranny and union shackles that force you to finance these acts of domestic terrorism through mandatory dues payments to the union. I am truly and deeply sorry. I can only say that we will continue to fight for your freedom from this latest form of Democrat party slavery.
Probably not what he had in mind? Neither was getting busted for promoting the union, left wing agenda, from state property, on state equipment, during the states generous so-called “break periods,” in apparent violation of department and other polices regarding such use. But thanks for admitting to it.
Dick de Seve, by the way, stopped commenting during work hours the day after the original blog post. In his email a few days later, he assured me that he will no longer post during office hours. We appreciate the consideration but must acknowledge that, having not gotten caught, he’d still be at it now, and we feel an obligation to the taxpayers who financed all that left wing pro-union politicking to determine just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
And so we shall.
