Just who is State Senator Donna Boley?

Ok, another issue I've recently had some reason to look into, is just who is State Senator Donna Boley? On another blog, I took issue with someone claiming Mrs. Boley was some sort of super senator. In fact, my exact words (before they were deleted by the blog administrator - in a cowardly act of censorship, the likes of which you won't see here) were that Mrs. Boley was quite possibly the DUMBEST member of the State Legislature. My opinion comes from actually dealing with Mrs. Boley on several occasions. So, let's look at her a bit closer at who she really is, shall we?

According to her bio, she's a "businessperson," and a "bookkeeper." And she went to a community college for one year. Not much of a resume. She didn't graduate from college. No listing of actual businesses she's run. Evidently, some people think that just being elected to the State Senate is conclusive evidence that someone is "smart." To those people, I say: Please. Go educate yourself. For the sake of the rest of us, please go learn something before you can do any more damage to society.

We know Senator Sprouse is an engineer, with a degree from Penn State, and owns a string of Curves outlets. Senator Mike Oliverio sells insurance, a graduate of West Virginia University and is in the army reserves. Boley doesn't list anything of the sort. Hell, does Boley even HAVE a job outside being a state senator?

Being elected to ANY office means exactly one thing, and one thing only. You got more votes than the other guy. Hell, there are some people who lose elections to candidates that are actually DEAD. And I mean "dead" as "in-the-ground/wormfood" dead. Ask John Ashcroft how that works. He'll tell you all about it. To assert that by simply being a state senator, you are somehow "smart" is absolutely one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And, to assert that Mrs. Boley is somehow special because she was the only republican in the State Senate for a period of time, is equally a dumb comment. Hell, Boley's district is one of the few places where a republican has a shot of winning a senate seat. Pleasants County is much more republican than most other counties in West Virginia, and Wood County is almost split 50-50 on registered democrats and republicans, and votes quite conservatively. Both counties are in Boley's district. And Boley's district has been that way for quite some time. So let's just quit with the automatic imparting of intelligence to a republican who gets elected from that district. If she won from Mingo or Logan or Wyoming County as a Republican, then maybe we can talk about how smart she is. But in one of the best districts for republicans (if not THE best) in the state? Let's hold off with her Mensa application for a while.

And lastly, you have to also figure in who's actually voting for her. The same electorate who elected our current State Auditor, because his father was the preceding State Auditor, and just happened to have the same name. But the more telling thing is this. The same electorate elected his father, because he simply had the same name as the State Auditor who preceded him. And they weren't even related. They just both happened to have the same name, Glen Gainer. But in West Virginia, with our edjumacated electorate, that's all it takes to win an election, having the same name as the guy before you. So, let's not judge someone's intelligence on their ability to get elected. Hell, our current State Auditor was a tractor salesman before his dad decided to not seek re-election.

Is Robin Capehart using state work time to do his GOP duties?

Ok, my last post on Rob(in) Capehart evidently ruffled some feathers (well, at least one). I have evidently offended some of his supporters with my comments in the previous post. One even referred to the whole post as "bullshit." So, I figured I'd poke around some more and see what I can find, in the way of just what exactly is going on with Robin.

Robin has been on the radio quite a bit this week after his election as the Chairman of the State GOP. He was on one of our favorite targets here at the Sweatbox, 58 Live on 580 WCHS radio on Monday afternoon. On that show, Robin remarked that he was teaching class all morning, from 9 to 12. As previously stated, Robin is a professor at Marshall University's College of Business, in their "Accounting and Legal Environment" Division. Robin talked with Agnello and Johnson about the goings on at the GOP Headquarters. Evidently the money crunch in the Party necessitated some cost cutting, so he had to let several full time employees at the party headquarters go and he stated so on the radio. No big deal in and of itself.

Then, the next day, Tuesday, Robin was on Hoppy Kercheval's show, Metronews' Talkline. Hoppy's show runs from 10AM to 12 noon. Robin called in around 10:30AM and was on the air approximately 15 minutes or so chatting it up with Hoppy. He basically covered the same ground he did on Agnello's show. He talked about having to let those employees go. He also said that a committee was being set up to oversee the current finances of the party, and this committee was going to be headed up by State Senator Donna Boley. These moves are nothing to be concerned about, and certainly aren't earth shattering. So you have to be saying to yourself, what's the point of this post, Bingmanch?

Well, the troubling thing about all this airtime for Robin is the timing of it. According to this website (scroll down to the second class listed) Robin should be teaching a summer school class at Marshall University from 10am through 12:15pm, Monday through Friday. Yet, he somehow managed to call Hoppy's show right in the middle of that class' scheduled meeting time, at around 10:30am on Tuesday. Now, how could someone who's under contract with the state, to teach a class Monday through Friday from 10am to 12:15pm, be teaching Federal Taxation, AND have the time to call a radio station and talk about being the GOP Party head? If a state worker uses a state cell phone for personal business, that's a no-no, as we have seen with the Nitro City Council stuff, and the Bill Charnock stuff lately in the newspapers. So why was Capehart using his scheduled work time as a state employee to call Hoppy and talk state GOP politics? Why was Robin using the time he's supposed to be in class teaching students and earning a state paycheck, as the same time to spend doing PR work for the state republican party? Why is the state paying him to teach from 10 to 12:15, if he's not teaching? Not to mention, teaching 10 to 12:15 (as he seems to be scheduled for), isn't "9 to 12" like he stated on Agnello's show on Monday.

Capehart appears to be playing fast and loose with his state work time.