What was McDowell doing at the NAIC?
A tipster raises a good question: What was Senator Harris McDowell doing accompanying Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart to the quarterly meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners?
It is well known that, at best, Harris McDowell is a mentor to and former employer of Commissioner Stewart; at worst, the real power behind the Insurance Commissioner’s office. If the latter is reality, it is really revealing (and unwise) for this picture to be posted on the IC website (a view behind the Wizard’s curtain, if you will), but we know why he is there. If the former is the case, what business does a state senator have at a conference for a Insurance Commissioners?
You know what he was doing at the conference. McDowell is the de facto commissioner. Stewart is his puppet because she’s too stupid to do the job herself. That’s the way he planned it. She looks like she put on a lot of weight, too. And who the hell cares about all that shit she has Elliott Jacobson put on the website. It’s like her brag page even though she hasn’t accomplished a damn thing since she took office, except taking credit for other people’s work. That’s what she does best, besides spending other people’s money.
Think about what that statement says about you as a person. (Note: I am not a KWS supporter – I think she should be investigated.)
Indeed, X. Yes, she looks different from her headshot that is always in the paper and on the IC website, but that is because that picture was taken over 10 years ago. She looks the same in this picture above as she did during the campaign.
She looks like she put on about 180 pounds of Vice President.
Your big story tomorrow: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized after falling ill, a court spokeswoman said.
Lower Forty hit it dead on. The dems planned it that way all along. McDowell is running the department, which be as much concern than if KWS was running it. Corruption versus incomptetence.
He is a member of the State Senate Insurance Committee. That could be part of the answer. I don’t have any inside information,but below is from the state senate website:
———————————————
Senate Insurance Committee
Chairman: Patricia M. Blevins
Members: Catherine L. Cloutier,Bethany A. Hall-Long,Harris B. McDowell,David P. Sokola
http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/LIS145.NSF/*/629172D4D92FD1A285257507005A4CBC/?opendocument&nav=Senate
You people can be such pathetic idiots. UNREAL. And I don’t mean Tobin.
No Nancy, what’s pathetic is your continuing misplaced loyalty and the mockery McDowell and Stewart and their shady cabal of political crony consultants have made of the insurance department. Another question is, why did consultant and supposed regulatory expert Steve Kinion and his staff of three get a separate office off site at 704 King Street when there’s plenty of room at both the Silver Lake location and the Carvel state offices?
There are clearly ties between KWS and HBM. She used to be his campaign treasurer, and he got her that per diem receptionist job with the State Senate.
However, anon’s statement that ‘the dems planned it that way all along’ doesn’t make sense. Most Dems would have preferred that Matt Denn stay as IC. Since KWS is the anti-Denn, and wasn’t even endorsed in the Primary, this was not part of some ingenious plan. The Dems had no interest in replacing a highly-accomplished credit to his party with a sleazy nobody.
And anyone who knows McDowell knows that perhaps his fatal flaw is his inability to stay focused on anything for more than 20 seconds. This sinister portrait of a cunning Machiavelli-like figure is actually funny when one thinks about it.
No, this was a case of a political vacuum being created, and a vacuous politician rushing in to fill it.
PATHETIC!!!
Another question: What is Elliott Jacobson trying to accomplish with the constant publicity he’s putting out on Stewart in the media, on the internet, and on the dept. website? It’s all totally meaningless and none of it has any bearing on the IC’s job or the concerns of Delawareans whose interests are supposed to be her first priority. Is she hoping for some kind of federal appointment? I wouldn’t be surprised given her warped self-image. When Denn was IC, he just did his work and no one ever heard a peep out of the office, which is as it should be.
Quite the convincing argument you have there, Nancy.
“Anyone who knows McDowell knows that perhaps his fatal flaw is his inability to stay focused on anything for more than 20 seconds. This sinister portrait of a cunning Machiavelli-like figure is actually funny when one thinks about it.”
Nobody ever claimed McDowell is the brains of his operation. He’s a useful tool.
Rhubard, he is useful only if he brings her some veneer of credibility. That he does not do nor, in her case, could he do.
To his credit, McDowell was (and I think still is) a proponent for single-payer. And he also pushed ‘pay at the pump’ auto insurance, which I think is an excellent idea. Everybody’s insured, no BS. The more you drive, the more you pay.
McDowell has his faults, but I’ve never seen him as a corrupt or dishonest person. His intentions have generally been good, sometimes laudable, it’s his follow-through that I’ve found wanting.
I know that puts me in the minority here, but there you go.
Rhubard or ‘Bulo, if McDowell’s not the brains of the operation, who is?
Likely one of the industry shills she brought in.
The alternative is…nobody.
Wonder if Senator McDowell is being reimbursed by the State for this trip. FOIA anyone?
‘Bulo, didn’t Stewart claim in her campaign that she had vast insurance experience from being the President and CEO of an insurance consulting firm that turned out to be just a paper incorporation? And the WNJ claimed she had “more experience than anyone in recent memory” even though she really has little to none? Was that just another one of Elliott’s press releases? If she’s all that, why did she need all the insurance shills? No other IC has ever run the office like that, but of course they all had an education, unlike Stewart. Why are we paying five people, six if you count Stewart, to do the work she was elected for? Why can’t somebody just remove her?