Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, is alleging her client was an undocumented worker while serving as a housekeeper and nanny over a period of nine years in the home of (Nut)Meg Whitman, the Republican nominee for California governor.
Allred said Whitman caused her client to “feel exploited, disrespected, humiliated, and emotionally and financially abused.”
The worker alleges Whitman knew she was in the USA illegally but did not act on it until she decided to run for governor last year.
The former Whitman housekeeper, Nicky Diaz Santillan, said she was treated like “garbage” during the nine years she worked in the Whitman household from 2000 to 2009.
Gloria Allred, never at a loss for words said, “‘Don’t ask don’t tell’ may have become, ‘Oh my God she will tell if I continue to employ her,” and is filing a claim for unpaid wages and mileage reimbursement.
(Nut)Meg Whitman. Just another rich Republican hypocrite who lives by the motto of, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
From the Left 
Meg Whitman is a fucking hypocrite and I can’t stand to look at her. She’s a billionaire and she can’t fix her gum line? When she smiles, she looks like a dog. If this little factoid about hiring an illegal doesn’t sink her hopes of becoming governor, then there’s no hope for the Golden State of California.
Companies are fined for breaking immigration laws.
Why isn’t Ms. Whitman being fined? She knowingly ignored immigration laws, employed someone in the US illegally, and did so for nearly a decade.
She shouldn’t get a pass because she ran a company that let people sell their old junk on the internet.
If memory serves, Linda Chavez and Wilbur Romney had illegal immigrant issues too and they were quickly brushed under the rug by handlers.
I have no doubt, Nutmeg (love the name!) will use a portion of her $1 billion dollar fortune to do the same and make the problem go away.
Whitman is despicable.
Surely, voters in California can’t seriously be thinking about electing her? Please say it isn’t so!
“….Whitman knew she was in the USA illegally but did not act on it until she decided to run for governor last year.”
There it is.
This statement goes directly to character and Meg Whitman completely lacks character.
Were it not for the fact she tossed her hat in the race for governor, I feel confident she would still have this undocumented maid and nanny in her home.
The only thing that makes Jerry Brown look good is Meg Whitman. Why Gavin Newsom dropped out of this race, I’ll never know. That being said, I really doubt Whitman treated her maid/nanny poorly, sadly the only thing that we still make in America are lawsuits.
Funny … the oh-so-clever (Nut)Meg moniker and Dmitris’ rather virulent language seem not quite in the spirit of your blog’s policies, namely as they delimit “inappropriate” comments, harassment, etc., while encouring “energic conversations and rigorous debate.” All the usual tropes about evil rich white people and the so-called “progressive” ideals of destroying business while thinking we’re going to somehow pay for universal health care aside, I find it distressing that this typical “liberal” blog that professes tolerance, social justice, etc., is merely another slambook.
Harry….. I think you got lost on your way to Freeperland. Your rhetoric is as stupid as your name, so I have to be on the right track here (while you, of course, went off the rails some time ago.)
Harry, we’ve been calling her NutMeg for quite some time. Get with the program.
My question is who’s behind this? One day I get a bilingual mailer from the California Democratic Party telling Latinos not to vote for NutMeg because she tells them one thing and says the opposite in English. Then this happens the next day.
If the Democratic Party is behind this, then I have to applaud them for ripping a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook.
Another rich Republican abusing the laws of the land and who only got busted because her ambition forced the issue forward.
What I find particularly odorous is the illegal worker says in the brief that (Nut)Meg owes her back wages and she was treated so poorly over a sustained period of time, and she feared if she came forward to forced (Nut)Meg pay the back wages, the eBay queen would have the woman deported.
This is a clear case of taking advantage of a woman who had no voice or control over her own life. This meets the definition of “abuse” and while (Nut)Meg may be cheered by her fellow millionaires at the country club in Atherton, what she did was illegal.
Apparently, Whitman knowingly falsified the hiring documents and failed to pay FICA tax for the woman. Of course, not paying FICA tax is one of the benefits of hiring an undocumented worker. It’s cheaper and since Whitman maid her fortune as CEO of a company that sells trash, she’s just following a pattern. I can’t wait to see the next polls. Brown should be way up.
The Koch brothers will now have to triple the amount of money they’re donating to Nutmeg’s campaign. You see, they are the real driving force behind her effort to be the next governor of California. Whitman kicked in $104 million of her money but this doesn’t tell the entire picture of how this nitwit got so far, so fast in a state where the majority of voters are to her left on a number of important issues.
You never hear about wealthy, Hollywood types like Meryl Streep, Bruce Springsteen or Barbra Streisand employing undocumented workers as maids, or as nannies, or as yard keepers.
This is a Republican phenomena and involves men and women who are vehemently against immigration.
It’s an interesting double standard, isn’t it?
Regardless how you feel about Whitman (I don’t like her and I don’t plan to vote for her), the facts of this matter are quite clear.
Nicandra Diaz, the housekeeper/nanny, signed U.S. Department of Justice employment eligibility forms in which Diaz claims she is a “lawful permanent resident.” She was not.
Security Administration contacted Whitman in 2003 to say the Social Security number provided by Diaz did not match her name, calling that a “a clue that the employee may be undocumented.”
But Whitman, a savvy business woman, continued to employ Diaz for nine more years and only fired the woman when she asked Whitman to assist her in becoming a legal resident.
Of course Whitman wanted nothing to do with this process because it would expose her as knowingly employing an undocumented immigrant.
Whitman broke the law — Federal law, and all her billions can’t save her from scrutiny now.
Dude….. thought I would drop you a little info on our up coming Senatorial race and the GOP candidate. Personally…. I am making phone calls for the Dem, Russ Feingold. I thought your take would be interesting…. and… as always… informative.
“Ron Johnson, WI Senate Candidate, Opposed Wisconsin Child Victims Act”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/29/ron-johnson-wi-senate-can_n_743910.html
http://www.americablog.com/2010/09/olbermann-examines-wi-goper-ron.html
I have to do some reading up on this story, but I’m wondering how it is that the “security administration” (guessing this means “social security administration”) had contacted whitman to tell her the ssn was invalid …. unless whitman had used that number to make the required employer FICA tax payments to federal govt?
Another bizarre, failed Republican. How pathetic that these are the potential candidates presented for office these days.
Jim: Whatever you may think of republican policies, Whitman is hardly a bizarre failure. She is going to be hard to beat: successful businesswoman, tech-savvy, erudite … and she even looks governor-torial. Oh, and maybe she is compassionate too … she looked the other way when the feds came to her and said her employee may be illegal. She believed the employee.
She was CEO of ebay, that’s a very popular thing, and ebay also runs paypal and also at one time owned of skype … all these very popular and her association with them is a major positive. No one can doubt her management abilities, and tech vision.
It’s something like when Bloomberg ran for mayor in NYC (I live in NJ and I grew up in NYC and work there, so I know a lot about this). The democrats made all sorts of personal attacks but his reputation was well known and it only made the attackers look bad, not Bloomberg.
So beware the nanny-gate approach to fighting Whitman!
Rinaldo – None of what you write is in any way germane to this thread.
In California, where Latinos make up over 35 percent of the population, GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman enlisted Pete Wilson to assure Republican voters that she would be “tough as nails” on the issue of illegal immigration, and she pledged to deny in-state tuition and driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Now, it turns out Le Whitman has an immigration problem of her own. In fact, ALIPAC, who at one time, supported the eBay queen, is asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest and charge both Whitman and Diaz for numerous immigration and employment law violations.
Whatever goes on in New Jersey or New York has almost no bearing on California. They two coasts are very different, as they address immigration and the reform of the immigration system.
I think what I stated is very germane to this thread, my point is that this line of attack against Whitman will probably have no impact and may even be counter-productive.
Imagine if Jerry Brown was outed for employing a housekeeper in the country illegally for nearly ten years?
Everyone on the right, from Meg Whitman’s camp, to the FOX News zombies, to Rush and Savage, would all over him like white on rice. But, Meg Whitman and her loyalists want us to sweep her lawlessness under the carpet.
Sorry but it ain’t going to happen. I predict here and now, this will sink Whitman’s campaign. The voters are tired of the lies and the hypocrites.
Rinaldo, why don’t you add to this that Shitman took a bribe from Goldman Sachs and then looked the other way while GS screwed over eBay shareholders?
Your Shitman commercials aren’t very convincing, and she does not compare, except in the fantasy world of the right wing, to Bloomberg.
I’m not the least bit surprised by this revelation about Meg Whitman. By all accounts, she’s a bitch on wheels and a very angry woman.
Remember the shoving incident reported by an eBay employee? Can you even imagine a CEO putting his or her hands on an employee in a fit of anger and pushing the worker out of the way?
Then there are the reports of Whitman parking her Mercedes in handicapped parking at the market and in Stanford Shopping Center. Whitman is a large, able-bodied woman and had no business taking a parking space designated for disabled drivers.
Now we learn when the Koch Brothers convinced the former eBay queen to run for governor, Whitman jettisoned Diaz Santillan like a bad case of syphilis and sent her a letter that read, “You never have seen me and I have never seen you. Do you understand me?”
A vile, nastier woman can’t be found.
There’s a letter from Social Security Administration that Whitman claimed she or her husband never received but the letter has comments at the bottom written by Whitman’s husband.
Apparently, Whitman and Harsh never returned it “because they wanted to continue to employ an undocumented worker,” according to Allred.
Whitman’s fortune can’t change the facts and until she comes clean, I think Conejo1982 is spot on. This goes to character and Whitman lacks the character to be California’s next governor.
I am highly amused by the people who choose an elected based on how good looking the candidate is. Such people should not be allowed to vote. As for Whitman’s housekeeper – what a bunch of crap – “treated like garbage for nine years”. There might be a valid claim if it was nine days or weeks. It could not have been too bad if she put up with for nine YEARS. Send the illegal home and end the gold digging. I’m not justifying anything, but please make sensible arguments about these people; and most people in high office, Dem or Rep, are crooks, no matter how good looking they are. Wise up.
Jim,
Unless you were there for the nine years (Nut)Meg Whitman maintained her undocumented housekeeper, then yours is just an opinion and you know what they say about opinions: they’re like assholes, everybody has one.
The good news is, Whitman lost and Brown won, so deal.