The inspector investigating the half-dozen violations of Joe Wurzelbacher’s privacy has finished his work. He found that, indeed, the government of Ohio and three Democrats in particular, improperly accesses his private records. Helen Jones-Kelley was specifically named in the report, which said that her story was contradictory (which means that she lied). The inspector has also referred the cases to the local prosecutor’s office for “review and consideration”.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland came out quickly to levy punishment on Jones-Kelley. He decided to suspend her for a month, without pay.

That’s it. A one-month unpaid vacation. Whoop-dee-do.

Ace thinks this is the beginning of a whitewash and I’m inclined strongly to agree with him. Jones-Kelley blatantly lied about there being a special onus on her to check anyone who reaches a certain level of celebrity. She also lied about the reason her Deputy used to demand the check. Governor Strickland still seems at a loss to conclude whether her illegal invasion was politically-motivated but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that it very likely did considering Jones-Kelley was not only a max-level donor to Barack Obama but was also feeding his campaign contact information of other potential donors using taxpayers’ resources.

The Governor, who is also a Democrat and a very public booster of Barack Obama, blew it and he probably blew it on purpose. I sincerely hope the local prosecutor decided to move forward with an investigation and nails Jones-Kelley to the wall. Plenty of people have gone to jail for violating privacy and security laws just like the ones she violated when she ordered her people to rifle through Wurzelbacher’s records. She should spend some time behind bars.

And she should do it with considerably less money than she has right now. I’d very much like to see Plumber Joe dropping a huge civil suit on her and the state as well. I hope he gets millions from the suit. Impoverishing the quasi-fascist bureaucrats who believe they can use their political power to intimidate ordinary citizens into silence is a great way to ensure that the rest of that ilk think deeply before they do it to another one of us.

That goes for Governor Ted Strickland, too. Were I an enterprising member of the Ohio Republican Party, I’d be tucking this story, and Strickland’s inexcusable leniency, away for 2010. I bet they could get a few campaign commercials about the Democratic party’s abuse of power.