The Real Issue With Meg Whitman: She Didn’t Do The Right Thing

It may well be true that California GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman didn’t know that her maid, Nicky Diaz (pictured with attorney Gloria Allred), was in the country illegally. It’s also true that Jerry Brown’s campaign is using this controversy to political advantage (and what candidate wouldn’t?).  But the real issue was touched upon during a Saturday debate between the two candidates: Once Whitman discovered that someone she regarded as a “member of the family” was not here legally, she didn’t do the right thing. When Diaz asked for help to normalize her status, Whitman refused.

Brown said it was shabby for Whitman not to offer at least initial help to the housekeeper, whom Whitman has described as being like a member of her extended family.

“When someone works with you, you do have familial bonds and ties, and I think if that story is to be believed, I think Meg flunked the most fundamental test of all, and that is to treat people with respect and decency,” he told reporters in a post-debate news conference.

…

“You don’t just bring in semi-serfs and say do our dirty work, and then we’re finished with you like an orange and just throw it away. That’s after you’ve squeezed it. That’s not right,” he said.

And that really is the issue. Whitman told her friend of nine years to lose her number and make believe they never knew each other.

“I said ‘Meg please, can you help me,’ and she was very upset and said ‘No, and you don’t know me, and I have never seen you, and you’ve never seen me,'” Diaz-Santillan said. “I was shocked and hurt that Ms. Whitman would treat me this way after nine years,” she said. “I realized at that moment that she didn’t appreciate my work, that she would throw me away like a piece of garbage. I don’t feel like I deserved to be treated this way.”

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.