MEG Whitman, The BULLING SNOB, Demands The Governorship

[Segami]

:shrug:


" We don't know exactly what's true in the charges that have been flung against various members of Meg Whitman's family, and against the Republican gubernatorial candidate herself. What we do know, however, is that she and each of her sons have been accused of atrocious acts that bear a surprising family resemblance.


The candidate herself has been accused of shoving an employee while she was in charge at eBay. Apparently, a staff member named Young Mi Kim was helping Whitman prepare for an online interview. Whitman seems to have been unhappy with Kim's briefing, and either shoved her, or "physically guided her" out of the room. The resulting lawsuit was settled out of court and included a confidentiality agreement.


As Alex Pareene wrote yesterday, we recently found out that one of Whitman's sons, Griffith Rutherford Harsh V, was arrested in 2006 for battery, after breaking a woman's ankle at a bar in Palo Alto. Harsh, who was 21 at the time, apparently pushed Victoria Sanchez after she knocked off his hat and said, "Fuck your fraternity." Harsh disputed the story, saying she had pushed him and then stumbled, but a security guard corroborated Sanchez's account. Whitman bailed her son out, and charges were eventually dismissed.


Griff Harsh's younger brother Will, meanwhile, was supposedly banned from an eating club at Princeton, where he was a student, for using the n-word. As it's reported, he had already been put on notice for picking a fight with a bouncer, and the racial slur was the last straw.


Obviously, we're relying on hearsay somewhat here, especially in the last case. And is it even appropriate to be talking about Whitman’s children?


I don't feel too guilty about that. Political families are generally taboo subjects because they’re vulnerable without being relevant -- in other words, easy targets for journalistic bloodsport. But the Harsh boys are neither vulnerable nor irrelevant. They're in the news exactly because they've been picking on people who aren’t their own size, and their mother has too.


The Harshes apparently had a reputation for lording it over their fellow Princeton students based on their wealth and their parentage. Whitman is Princeton's most prominent living donor. The university divides its undergraduates up into colleges, of which there were five until recently. The brand-new sixth college was funded with a $30 million gift from Whitman, and is named after her. (The dining hall is called "Community Hall," not for the university community but for the eBay community.)


So, like their mother who got sick of an employee's yapping, the Harshes seem to have thought that they owned the damn place and could do what they pleased. A sense of entitlement doesn't live in the DNA, but it sure seems to have been passed down from mother to sons.


more

<http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/06/17/whitman_class_privilege/index.html>


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[Segami]

1. Should we really expect this 'privileged family' to change their ways if she won the Governorship?

[kestrel91316]

2. I think Jerry Brown's campaign needs to start mentioning (subtly of course)

that one of Whitmans sons has a pompous-sounding name with a numeral behind it.

Griffith Rutherford Harsh V. Hmmmm. These days about the only people with a "V" behind their names are royalty.

BTW, what do we know about her husband, other than that he's probably one Griffith Rutherford Harsh IV?

[avaistheone1]

3. Husband seems to be a mystery.

Haven't heard a word about him.

[kestrel91316]

5. Let's fix that, DUers!!!! For starters:

http://search.intelius.com/Dr-Griffith-R-Harsh-IV-MD-IlcmN19q

Neurosurgeon, Stanford

[joeybee12]

4. Not that Princeton is any good in any sports, but remind me to root against

them whenever possible.

[KamaAina]

8. Actually, they're usually nationally ranked in lacrosse

and are generally near the top of the Ivy League in men's basketball, for whatever that's worth. :P (Bill Bradley played there.)

[Stevenmarc]

6. Of course she "Demands The Governorship" she hit the Buy It Now button

[ljm2002]

7. This race is looking like it's going to be fun to watch...

...but don't count Meg out just yet. With the $$$ she's got, she'll be able to mount attack ads and more attack ads. And she will not hesitate to smear, smear, smear.

She is a piece of work. I hope she gets dragged through it and dragged down and politically destroyed in the process. I hope Jerry's campaign recognizes that destroying her is the goal -- not playing nice.

Jerry's been around the block. He knows how the game is played, and his career has been as scandal-free as any politician I have seen -- and I've been following politics for a good long time now. But any whiff of anything, there will be attack ads, you can count on it.

So please Jerry, go for the jugular. Attack her early and often, and take her down hard. We're counting on you!