The Year End Chip Flowers Fingerpointing
This is a comment rescue, from a piece that John Manifold linked to for us from Delaware State News, where Chip Flowers is still trying to avoid taking responsibility for the basic management of his office. This time, he wants you to know that the OMB is responsible for terminating an exempt employee that he hired. And “politics” is at fault for the OMB leaving him with the Personnel bag, as it were, even though the employee has already resigned and is done with her medical leave:
In June, Ms. Benner went on a six-month medical disability stint that expired in December. During that period, she resigned her position as Deputy Treasurer.
Mr. Flowers said state budget office’s actions may be an attempt to thwart opportunities he has at re-election or running for higher political office based on negative publicity Ms. Benner’s situation may bring to the Treasurer’s Office.
“I am very concerned that this may have political motivations, but am willing to give OMB the benefit of the doubt,” he said. “They should provide the requested materials promptly so that the Treasury can make a decision on how to proceed.”
The state budget office said this week it had no further comment on Ms. Benner’s status, or Mr. Flowers’ statements. Ms. Visalli has not been made available for comment, and statements have been issued through a spokeswoman Jessica Eisenbrey.
Mr. Flowers said he would work with the Delaware Attorney General’s Office and attorneys representing Ms. Benner to resolve the matter.
“The politics of this must stop,” Mr. Flowers said. “It is not fair to use a single mother with two kids, despite her actions which we do not condone, as a pawn in a political game.
“If you want to come after the Treasurer, come after me directly and stop using this person as a pawn in a political vendetta.”
Really? whatever politics might be in play could be put to bed if the Treasury would just find out what he needs to do to process Ms. Benner’s employment termination. Maybe the Treasury doesn’t want to do the day to day management of this office — much like not being able to manage his Travel budget — in which case he should pipe down and go back to his law practice full time.
Tags: Chip Flowers, Featured
The Chipster is leading by a 3-1 margin over the next contestant in the Most Ridiculous Story poll. This will help him increase and solidify his lead. But Cassandra, did you really mean to say “….whatever politics might be in play could be put to bed…”? Perhaps tongue-in-cheek, but definitely gets my vote FTW!
As stated in my prior post, I didn’t think this would be as cut and dry as others stated. The OMB made a decision not to give her another position. She already resigned, I guess assuming she would automatically be placed back in the merit system. That didn’t happen, just curious why he is still fighting for her job in the system? I do not think this is over by a long shot, we still haven’t heard from her.
Honest to god. I must be missing something….isn’t she appointed by him and therefore he’s the one who has the responsibility of letting her go? Can someone answer that?
OMB said she’s not going to get a merit position bc she stole state tax dollars. Now it’s up to him right?
Can we just skip to the chip approval rating poll???
Reading Flowers comments here and on his FB page, he seems to be pursuing a “The Winners Write The History” strategy. He’ll be going all in on reelection and when he wins that he’ll say – the voters have spoken.
Tim, she was appointed, but resigned before knowing if she was getting her merit job. Now it seems like there is back peddling going on. She jumped to the conclusion that she would automatically get her merit job back. Employers tend to frown on people using credit cards for NFL games.
This story is so stupid. DL and TNJ are obsessed with this guy. Nobody cares anymore and only generating sympathy vote. it’s been a very slow news year for Delaware. Let’s move the f on.
Well of course you would show up to say this was stupid, Fan Boy. If your pal Chip would actually get his job done and stop finger pointing over why he can’t actually manage his job, this whole thing would Go Away.
Yeah, he lied again.
He says the budget office is responsible for determining her employment status.
State Treasurer Flowers maintained that she has had no active role in his office after she resigned and Ms. Benner’s employment issues are between her and the state budget office.
“They should provide the requested materials promptly so that the Treasury
can make a decision on how to proceed.”
Mr. Flowers said he wanted to see what investigative findings led to the agency’s decision to deny Ms. Benner’s merit system return request before taking any action.
I’m thinking the only question to ask here is, “Would you hire her to work at your business?” My answer would be no, YMMV.
“It’s wrong to use this single mom as a pawn…” says the same Chipper who made a huge deal out of accepting her resignation as proof he’d punished her and regained control of the office, then demanded she repay thousands of dollars she wasn’t obligated to repay (until he said she didn’t, until he said once again she did), outed her relationship with a legislator on this blog, and put her back in the paper once again when he tried to place this story in the State News to attack OMB again.
But other than that, nobody should use her as a pawn?
Are you people friends with the guy? Lol! Sounds like Jacko and his staff are planting stuff on blogs again. Once again why he won’t be pres. This racist crap is too funny. Flowers paid $1k for money he didn’t even owe and jack loses 21 million and not a peep. I forgot, he’s a black man in office that needs to be accused of “stealing”.
“DL and TNJ are obsessed with this guy.”
Actually, the fragment was from the DSN.
When Flowers gets excited, his lips dribble the most bizarre incantations. Someone should gather the craziest nuggets that we’ll hear between now and next September 9.
And down here in Sussex, the rumors are flying that he will, and many believe that he will make a run for Gov. in 2016. If that is true, I sure hope everyone is paying attention to his antics…
“And down here in Sussex, the rumors are flying…”
Some people at both ends of the state are just too happy to find a black man it is socially acceptable to hate on.
And if the black man in question would just up his management and political game, there wouldn’t be much reason — socially acceptable or no — to criticize him. He isn’t immune from criticism just because he’s black, you know.
“Narcissism” and “ego” and “lack of management skills” are all dog whistles this white boy can hear clearly. Markell has all the same traits (think of his extended re-hiring of Vince Meconi, and his unpunished flouting of FOIA), yet we don’t hear the same comments about Markell’s self-opinion. Why is that?
What would Puck have said 20-some years ago as Dave Levinson was likewise bathing in social leprosy? “You people are being anti-semantic” or something like that. As I said, we’ll hear many crazy incantations over the next 9½ months.
Narcissism, ego and lack of management skills can respectively describe, depending on the circumstances, 30 to 80 percent of all elected public officials.
To strain to hear a “dog whistle” among those words is to debase a once-clever metaphor into a meaningless cliché.
“Narcissism” and “ego” and “lack of management skills” are all dog whistles
It’s a dog whistle if it isn’t true, or if it invokes some old bit of racial baggage.
If you are going to play the race card, you need to find yourself someone who can teach you how it is done.
There is nothing “old” about racial baggage in Delaware. It lives on in new generations, even as it is encoded Lee Atwater -style. No amount of spin or nuance can hide it. I repeat: Why don’t we hear the same comments about other politicians?
Unless, of course, it isn’t there. This is essentially the wingnut problem with invoking their so-called “reverse racism”. It doesn’t work — not only because it isn’t there, but because they don’t get what makes the race card effective.
Of course Flowers is likely happy to know that there is at least one white guy who is buying the race card defense. Keep hope alive!
Man employs Woman
Woman violates standing protocol
Man neglects to identify or address demonstrated violation of protocol
Man is forced to address Woman’s action
Man’s claimed ignorance of Woman’s actions is questioned
Man defends, then retracts, then defends his actions
Man continues to blame others, switches his story continuously
Man continues to blame others
Pretty sure this has nothing to do with race. If any other politician handled this like Chip did, the same reaction would be had. The thing is, most people are questioning how he reacted to the situation, not the actual actions that created the situation. I guarantee you Jack Markell wouldn’t have dealt with this issue in the same manner Chip did.
“I guarantee you Jack Markell wouldn’t have dealt with this issue in the same manner Chip did.”
Too late – Markell already caused and confronted similar situations and failed. He didn’t even bother coming up with explanations, because nobody dared ask (see: Meconi, or FOIA violations on charter committee).Also the port deal – you can probably come up with a few others on your own. There are plenty of examples of stunning arrogance and ego from the governor. Each got a brief mention here, and then was quickly dropped – nothing like the months-long masturbatory hissy fit over Flowers. Who is still unopposed, as far as I know.
And now puck is at the deflection part of this argument. Because now we have to pretend that there hasn’t been any criticism of the Governor here. Pretending that I didn’t write multiple posts about the port deal over six months or even the posts critical of casino largesse or all of El Son’s criticism of various bills the Governor supported or didn’t is the worst sort of lying. It is the kind of argument right winguts resort to when they have no argument left. The collective memory is pretty good here, puck, it’s Dr where you might get away with this foolishness.
Chip will perform well in the troll precincts.
You are right; the collective memory is long. I’ve been reading this blog since long before you were allowed to insult your first reader. I don’t recall any posts featuring a deranged recurrent motif about the Governor’s ego or personality as being a factor; just his actions and his political views. What is different about Flowers, but not Markell, that drives certain people crazy? Something is driving this Chip Derangement Syndrome. It sounds like circular self-satisfied wingnut dishing about Benghazi or Obama’s teleprompters or some such.
Helloooo, Puck? The Sheriff of Nuttingham? John Atkins? That strange Lewes guy who ran against Carper? That strange billboard guy who ran against Carper? The Wicked Witch? Ned Beatty’s inconvenient relative?
Chip is merely the latest in a fairly long list of people who some of us find to be deranged. Many of them are inexorably drawn to politics. Some even get elected. Go figure. Hey, if you’ve got an alternative legit explanation for Chip’s self-destructive behavior, I’ve got ears the size of Mike Castle’s prepared to listen to it.
Why would anyone mention Atkins? His has called Chip out on his Facebook page. Even tagged the Peoples Treasurer in his post. Chip failed to respond, of course.
Great point, ‘Anonymous’.
I mean, other than being disciplined by leaders of both parties in the House, being forced to resign his seat, the DUI and his pulling rank, the tire fire, the threatening letter to the head of the state police following his speeding arrest, being removed as chair of a committee as a result of that letter, and the reported wife-beating, what has Atkins done to deserve such approbation?
BTW, ‘Anonymous’, are you a music lover? Got one for ya’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ks2TPPyho
Ha! I recognize that one!!!!!!!
He was never forced to resign by anyone.
He was never charged with a DUI.
DNREC report said he wasnt involved in fire.
The email (not letter) was to a traffic lieutenant, not head of State Police. And he wasn’t arrested, hell he didn’t even get a ticket, did he?
He voluntarily resigned as chair of committee per the letter he wrote.
Where was the reported wife-beating?
Do you ever tell the truth? Dam you are dumb.
I’ve been reading this blog since long before you were allowed to insult your first reader.
Indeed. So you should know –from first hand experience — that no readers get insulted who haven’t asked for it. Like you pretending that there is some differing motivation for criticising Chip Flowers. You have to put your fingers in your ears and sing LALALALALALALALA to not see pretty clearly that he hasn’t been handling either budget issues or personnel issues well. And if he is going to continue being politically and managerial incompetent, then he gets criticized for it. Just like Colin Bonini.
‘Anonymous’, John is fortunate to have a ‘friend’ like you.
I mean, uh, he was never forced to resign by anyone? Just resigned his seat b/c, why?
Never got a DUI? Uh, flashing what he figured was a legislative ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card is what led to his ‘resignation’. He WAS legally drunk, after all.
‘Voluntarily’ resigned as committee chair? Why, did he prefer ‘less’ power to ‘more’ power? Not hardly.
He can use any excuse he wants. He was the reason the tire fire happened.
The fact that he didn’t get a speeding ticket but STILL complained in writing about being stopped just demonstrates how deranged this guy is. I mean, along with everything else. And, yes, it DID lead to his losing the committee chair.
Maybe you should have a heart-to-heart with your ‘friend’ John and urge him to come clean with you. You don’t deserve this mistreatment from a ‘good friend’.
Whatever El Dumbo. It’s your blog.
Do not be disheartened, ‘Anonymous’. It’s not easy defending a person who ‘some’ have described as a sociopath. You did the best you could, considering you had nothing to work with.
You may not believe this, but ‘some people’ have even said that John Atkins himself has sometimes blogged here under an alias while pretending to be someone else. I, for one, refuse to believe that. Although ‘some people’ who think he is truly deranged refuse to put it past him.
As a peace offering, let me soothe your nerves with a song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo5SQIKAjhE