Peter J. Quinn Investigated for Travel Omissions

tadelste writes to tell us O'Reilly is reporting that a recent story in the Boston News about Peter J. Quinn is nothing more than a desperate attempt to slant public opinion in the Massachusetts OpenDocument frenzy. While we have documents showing Microsoft's lobbyists paying for big trips for the former House Majority Leader and his family to go to England and Scotland, Mr. Quinn seems to be getting the spotlight for incomplete travel records. From the article in question: "On most of the trips, Quinn said, his travel and other expenses were paid for by the sponsors of the conferences. On two of the trips -- to Tucson and Washington, D.C. -- Quinn paid his own way, according to state records and an interview with Quinn."

Comments

Hopefully, this is misunderstanding, but may not

[yagu]

I read the article, all set to be outraged by what a PR spin this was to make this guy, and by association, the proposal for Open Document format for Massechusetts, and by meta-association, Open Source, ad nauseum, look bad.

You know what? It does look bad, but it looks bad for Quinn and his possible ethical lapses. If this guy really did schmooze, if he really was on the dole for anyone, then, my "side" or not, it's not good and it's wrong! I hope it's mostly a case of not dotting the i's, not crossing the t's, but if it's not, he owes an explanation.

Quinn had (and still has) the potential to be a contributor to the Open movement. He also has the potential to knock it back a peg or two.

I'm huge Open Source, linux, anti-Microsoft (in the "I-wish-they-would-cut-out-the-monopolistic-abuse- crap" sense), but not at the cost of ethics.

When you thought Slashdot couldn't sink any lower.

[Seumas]

They post articles citing Bill O'Reilly as a news source.

Happens to the best of us

[TubeSteak]

While it is unfortunate that people play politics with legal matters, breaking the law is breaking the law.

And I don't mean breaking copyright law. So don't bring that up.

Anti-corruption laws are there for a reason. You can peddle all the coke, whores, vacations and influence you like, but don't cry "BIAS" if you get caught.

I find it to be an inherently dishonest position to take when someone who broke the law (and/or their apologists) tries to play themselves as the victim of prosecutors.

The only situation (off the top of my head) where its fair to claim you're a victim is if you're being prosecuted under laws that have not been enforced or are so antiquated that they should have been stricken from the books entirely.

It doesn't take an ethics class to figure out that "IT manager Peter Quinn of the Massachusetts state government" shoulda kept his goddamn paperwork in order. There is a reason they make you file all that shit in triplicate.

Re:In the age of Karl Rove, bidniz is full contact

[mtec]

Three words:

Tin
uh...
Foil
and um...
Hat!