Heard of Google?

Governor Perdue and Lanier Cansler didn’t need the John Tote fiasco.
 
Perdue has made strides putting her administration in order. Cansler has the thankless task of managing an unmanageable department. But he has Carter and the home-health hounds gnawing on his leg, and the mainstream media is starting to chew too.
 
Then comes Tote, the short-lived appointee as state mental health director. Fresh from an organization that owes $1.5 million in unpaid taxes.
 
On WRAL last night, Tote portrayed himself as a victim treated unfairly by the state, asking: “How did we get here today?”
 
Hello. Your association didn’t pay its taxes.
 
He played the family card: “Nobody should ever have to be put in the situation of myself and my family.”
 
True. Why did you put yourself there?
 
Cansler faced the camera and took responsibility, but he can’t do everything. Didn’t anybody at DHHS think to Google this guy?
 
In cutting Tote loose, Cansler resorted to the time-worn clichés of “distraction and diversion” and not having mental-health care “overshadowed.”

 

You yearn for candor. Something like: “A man whose organization doesn’t pay $1.5 million in taxes cannot run an agency that spends hundreds of millions of the taxpayers’ dollars.”
 
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Gary Pearce

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Heard of Google?

Governor Perdue and Lanier Cansler didn’t need the John Tote fiasco.
 
Perdue has made strides putting her administration in order. Cansler has the thankless task of managing an unmanageable department. But he has Carter and the home-health hounds gnawing on his leg, and the mainstream media is starting to chew too.
 
Then comes Tote, the short-lived appointee as state mental health director. Fresh from an organization that owes $1.5 million in unpaid taxes.
 
On WRAL last night, Tote portrayed himself as a victim treated unfairly by the state, asking: “How did we get here today?”
 
Hello. Your association didn’t pay its taxes.
 
He played the family card: “Nobody should ever have to be put in the situation of myself and my family.”
 
True. Why did you put yourself there?
 
Cansler faced the camera and took responsibility, but he can’t do everything. Didn’t anybody at DHHS think to Google this guy?
 
In cutting Tote loose, Cansler resorted to the time-worn clichés of “distraction and diversion” and not having mental-health care “overshadowed.”

 

You yearn for candor. Something like: “A man whose organization doesn’t pay $1.5 million in taxes cannot run an agency that spends hundreds of millions of the taxpayers’ dollars.”
 
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Gary Pearce

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