O'Hare - Top Blogger?

Bernie O'Hare's been a reader of this site since it first went live over a year ago. His own site Lehigh Valley Ramblings is linked to in the side bar along with others with Nazareth ties (want to add one - email editor@newsovercoffee.com).

Unlike this site, which is firmly in the category of being a "Placeblog", O'Hare's is more of the political ilk, though he does write of place for the greater Northampton County area on occasion and on topics related to blogging.

Recently Bernie became famous because of Bernie. O'Hare wrote a column featuring the opinions of another blogger that differed with his own as a conversation starter. Call it fair balance. A tirade, vulgar and expletive laden was left by State Senator Lisa Boscola's Chief of Staff Bernie Kieklak. Long story short, the comments were noticed by the Morning Call who ran story that was immediately picked up everywhere. O'Hare's site, which normally receives traffic of about 400 readers a day, spiked to over 2000 - and Kieklak was suspended without pay.

Today the Morning Call has an article on the growing "power" or "influence" of blogs. The focus is on political blogs (read it here).

What seems to be lost or at least not discussed to date, is that Kieklak published his remarks that were job related, despite doing so as a "private citizen" under "protection" of the 1st Amendment and now his boss, State Senator Lisa Boscola has had to take action and her action will demonstrate her ability to represent her constituents and to lead.

While Kieklak's words set off the firestorm, Boscola's inaction may be most damaging. Boscola may have underestimated the legs this story would get and felt it would "blow over" as it was "just a blog". In doing so (and I'm only speculating on this reasoning) she refused to fire her Chief of Staff. Then when Kieklak offered his resignation she refused to accept it. Now she has suspended him without pay (again, making me believe she is waiting for it to die down to bring him back).

State Senator Boscola is the elected official for most Nazareth area residents. I for one can only wonder why she wouldn't accept his resignation particularly in light of past incidents detailed in the Morning Call (Kieklak has previously sent expletive laced emails to staff, was drinking with Boscola when she had her DUI, and had a DUI and car crash himself). While the comments may have created the situation, the issue is now Boscola's ability to lead. If she keeps Kieklak, one can only be led to believe she supports his actions as he was not remorseful for them himself. If that is the case people will need to ask if Boscola is really a person who can represent them.

If you'd like to read a recap of the story events and comments (without editing - and they are graphic and vulgar) I've posted them here.