From the Washington Post, 9/1/05 – http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091000768.html:
Issues for debate:
Was this firing justified?
Why did it happen? Would it have happened if the party at issue were someone other than Rove? Did Williams (official bio – http://www.sos.state.tx.us/about/sosbio.shtml) do this on his own with no prodding from the WH?
My question is: how reasonable is it to expect a politican to live in Texas while they are working in Washington DC?
For elected politicians, I can see allowing them to keep residency in their state, even through loopholes. For their employees, well, it’s just like anyone else taking a job in a new state. You move, you change residency.
I’m trying to focus debate on Williams’ actions, not Rove’s. (Unless Rove himself placed a call to get Reyes fired – which we probably would never know.)
Well, I’d doubt calling Rove a ‘politican’ is correct in any event. But let me say that all of the House and Senate maintain real homes in their respective districts or states and shuttle back and forth most weeks.
On the firing…I’d have to know exactly what the ‘media policy’ constituted. There can be real reasons for government employees to avoid commenting on their jobs.
I’m choking on my own words here, but I can see Rove’s argument.
I guess a suitable analogy might be to members of the military. They’re allowed to keep their residency in their home state, even though they may live in another for several years. No one expects, say, a Texan to register to vote in and pay taxes to Virginia; the Texan is still a Texan for legal purposes, since, for all intents and purposes, they maintain two residences as well: one in their home state of record, and another where they actually sleep.
Similarly, we expect our elected officials and political appointees not to take up permanent residence in DC. Congressmen, of course, must maintain a residence in their district, but I can see where a political appointee would want to go home when his term is up.
I will say, though, that there are better ways to establish residency than to use the address of a rental home that you own. Like, say, renting a room at the Houstonian Hotel. 
Robin
No idea. What. specifically, was the “media policy” of her organization?
I can be fired for speaking to the media as a representative of my organization, because I am not authorized to do so. My company has a press office, and announcements or comments of any sort come through it. Period.
If a similar policy existed here, then I would say the firing is justified.
Without knowing more it’s hard to say about the firing. I certainly think some form of reprimand, mayber for others besides Reyes, is in order, but firing?
Most businesses and government offices have a policy that all questions from the press are referred to the public relations office. I know I would certainly not give out any information to some unknown caller on the telephone. Ordinary telephone manners seem to me to require that the caller identify him or herself and whoever transferred the call from the press officer to Reyes should certainly have givern her the callers identity. We don’t know any of those details and so it’s hard to say.
A lawyer of all people should know when to keep their trap shut.
As to the broader question of residency, this is a bugbear that comes up from time to time. I recall John Thune used this identical issue as a slam against Tom Daschle in that race.
So long as there is are capital cities in this country, you’ll see these sorts of things trip up members of both parties.
There’s that.
I’d guess that also, Reyes was a pain in the ass employee and her supervisor used this breaking of rules on Reyes’s part to get rid of her. You don’t dump good ones over something like this, but stinkers? It’s a great opportunity to clean house.
The article discusses that, but the issue remains unclear, along with the actual content of the discussion between Reyes and the Post reporter:
IOW, Reyes was asked to field a question just because the press officer was out.
Yes, when asked for confidential info about a client or a case in progress. In this instance, Reyes was simply asked for a legal opinion based on certain facts as stated by the reporter. Giving such opinions is a lawyer’s job. Especially a public-sector lawyer.
Mr. Rove is the most powerful and vengeful unelected Republican in our fair nation. If I were an elected Republican, and I cared to be reelected ever again, I would fire an employee who had, in The Washington Post, accused Karl Rove of fraud. A Republican who pisses off Rove might as well switch parties.
I’m guessing that a major difference between your company and the Texas Secretary of State’s office is that they most likely often answer questions along the lines of “if I claim a Texas residence but really live in another state, which state am allowed to vote in?” from the general public. The article cited seems to indicate that the media policy Reyes answered to allowed employees to answer those sorts of questions from the press. I’d say she probably said too much, but was still within the bounds of the policy, but that prior to the Post clarifying that it hadn’t asked about Rove by name, it would have looked like the sort of “controversial” issue that she was supposed to refer elsewhere.
It’s unclear. According to Reyes, the media policy permitted her conversation. According to Scott Haywood, the policy did NOT permit her conversation.
This should be an easy question to resolve. What, precisely, does the policy say?
Well, I can’t seem to find it on their website (http://www.sos.state.tx.us/), and I don’t suppose an internal policy of that kind would be posted there anyway. I guess we’ll have to wait for further news reports and/or litigation, should Reyes decide to contest this in court.
Just a little more on this matter. Apparently it did not occur to the Texas Sec of State to fire this staff lawyer until the Great Poo-bah himself phoned.
It just gets curiouser and curiouser.
Note that gov’t employees in Texas, according to this paper, are at-will employees subject to dismissal without cause or notice. I was about to say how great it was to have Texans running the country until I realized that Mr Rove probably isn’t a real Texan any more.
Just to highlight, in case anyone fails to click on your link, Spavined Gelding:
Rove is a slimy, dirty, fat little cunt.
I’m sorry for spewing such vitriol in Great Debates - I was thinking it was the pit. The point remains - Rove is a vindictive scumbag who personally intervened to have the lawyer fired.
!!! Is Texas the only modern state government with no civil service protections at all?