The morning news brings us this story about the firing of 3 employees at Ohio's scandal-wracked Worker's Compensation Council.
The 3 employees, two staff attorneys and an assistant, allege they were fired after objecting to their boss's ongoing attempts to force her religious practices on them.
Anyone who has spent time interacting with GOP'ers at the Ohio Statehouse isn't surprised by this turn of events. Though Gov. Ted Strickland has been in office nearly 4 years, decades of GOP control of state government has left many conservative zealots on the payroll.
The women's letters charge that McInerney declared to the staff that she was sent by God to her job, she wanted God to permeate the workplace, and Satan was to blame for obstacles the staff encountered in their jobs. She inquired about their religious beliefs, called them in to pray aloud, cited scripture in her reprimands and asked Irwin to listen to CDs of sermons and take notes on them, they say.
All three state that McInerney insisted on praying before weekly council meetings even after being told by attorney Finley in a legal opinion that it was not appropriate to do so.
Not surprisingly, GOP leader and charter member of Ohio's right wing "caveman caucus", Bill Batchelder defended McInerney:
Rep. Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican who chaired the council when McInerney was hired, said he knew her from when she worked for decades for the Legislative Service Commission doing research on workers' compensation-related issues. He said her work was "always top-shelf" and that the board was thrilled when she accepted the post paying $102,000 per year.
It's also interesting that Batchelder and cronies chose such an ideological conservative to head up the advisory council assigned to review Ohio's Bureau of Workers Compensation, whose corrupt operations were exposed by the Coingate Scandal.
The 2005 Coingate investigation revealed hundreds of millions of dollars from the BWC had been siphoned and invested illegally in rare coins and Beanie Babies by GOP operatives and fundraisers. Now we have a right wing GOP leader of the advisory council firing its employees because they objected to her evangelism in the workplace.
You can learn more about Ms. McInerny's evangelical work at her web site
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