Thread: Whitman-Brown debate: Skirmishes over maid UPDATED

Whitman-Brown debate: Skirmishes over maid

October 2nd, 2010, 1:25 pm
Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown held their second debate, sponsored by Univision, today in Fresno – it was scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to noon but apparently audio problems cause a delay. Good thing they didn’t air it live. A tape delay of the event will be aired at 4 p.m. on Univision with English and Spanish closed-caption subtitles.

In any event, it’s over now, after tense skirmishing over Whitman’s hiring and firing of an illegal immigrant maid, which the Republican says she didn’t learn was here illegally for the first nine years of her employment.

David Siders of the Sacramento Bee blogged the debate live. He gave this account of the an exchange over the housekeeper issue:
“Why did you not show compassion for this longtime employee?â€

Deport the illegal and put Whitman in jail for hiring her.

“Republican candidate Meg Whitman is in trouble for allegedly having an undocumented alien working in her home.
And, of course, Gloria Allred is representing the undocumented alien.
In fact, Allred called the undocumented alien the Rosa Parks of the Latino community.

The only problem was that Rosa Parks was here legally.â€

Meg Whitman Far From Only Politician With Housekeeper Troubles

David Knowles Writer

AOL News Surge Desk (Sept. 29) -- Good help (that won't come back and cause you trouble as you seek political office) is hard to find.

Today, California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's former housekeeper, an undocumented worker, held a news conference to detail her mistreatment "as a longtime, Latina household employee" in the Republican nominee and former eBay CEO's home.

The veracity of the claims remains uncertain. The housekeeper is represented by celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who Whitman's campaign has called a "shameful manipulator." The scenario in which a prospective politician's former domestic worker suddenly presents a potential obstacle in his or her career path, however, is a time-honored American tradition, especially lately.

Surge Desk has a round-up of politicians past and present who have had their own bouts of housekeeper-related trouble.

1. Tim Geithner
The nomination of President Barack Obama's treasury secretary very nearly came crashing down after it was learned that Geithner had employed an immigrant housekeeper whose employment authorization document had expired, CNN reported.

2. Nancy Killefer
Obama's pick as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget withdrew her nomination after it was revealed that she did not pay employment taxes for household help for a year and a half, the Chicago Tribune reported.

3. Caroline Kennedy
One of the theories put fort by The New York Times regarding Kennedy's abrupt withdrawal from her bid to fill Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate seat had it that the daughter of John F. Kennedy failed to pay taxes for a maid.

4. Linda Chavez
President George W. Bush selected Chavez for the post of secretary of labor, but her nomination was torpedoed after it was learned that Chavez housed an illegal immigrant from Guatemala whom her neighbor employed as a housekeeper.

5. Bernard Kerik
Bush's pick to head up the Department of Homeland Security withdrew after revealing that he had not paid taxes for a female undocumented worker he had hired, Fox News reported.

6. Jim Gibbons
The governor of Nevada was accused of hiring an illegal immigrant from Peru as a housekeeper and nanny back in 2006.

7. Zoe Baird
Picked to be attorney general by Bill Clinton, Baird failed to pay taxes for baby-sitting help. That and her willingness to hire illegal immigrants sank her nomination.

8. Kimba Wood
Hot on the heels of the Zoe Baird fiasco, Wood, Clinton's choice for a federal judgeship, also came under scrutiny for employing an illegal immigrant for childcare duties. The two events came to be known as "nannygate."

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